Hi All: Opinions about the nature of consciousness continue to come in. Here's a brief summary of the latest contributions:
Pirsig: (previously) Consciousness is a biological selection mechanism operating within a background of awareness described as an "endless landscape." Bo: Consciousness is a product of the S/O intellectual level which has emerged, as do the preceding levels, from a kind of nonintellectul awareness that Pirsig calls "Dynamic Quality." Willblake2: Consciousness is the ground of being as described by Huxley, Eckhart and other proponents of the "perennial philosophy," but how this ground gets divided up to become one's personal consciousness is a mystery. Jan-Anders: Consciousness is a mirror of your unconscious thinking. You can also make a mirror of the mirror and a mirror of that mirror which can then become an madhouse of endless mirrors. To stay sane and be successful you need to focus on the path at your feet laid down by others. Joe: Consciousness is a one of the levels of an individual's being created by and proper to society. Other levels of one's being (such as visions and dreams) are individually created. Responsibility rests on the individual being for himself, society, truth and goodness. Ham: Consciousness is the ground of being to the extent that value- sensibility is the ground of being-aware. Consciousness is a finite derivative of Sensibility which, in Essence, is indistinguishable from Awareness (consciousness) or Value. ( Note: Ham tends to use his own vocabulary and capitalization which I find impossible to summarize in my own words.) One thing stands out in my mind -- the difficulty in sorting out the meanings of "consciousness," "personal consciousness," "unconsciousness," "awareness," "sensibility," and in Pirsig's vernacular, "pure experience" and "Quality." Toss in Pirsig's "intuition," "mystic awareness" and "morality" and you've got a pretty how-de-do Personally I view consciousness along the lines of Ham's "value sensibility" (without Ham's metaphysics) or, as I prefer, "aesthetic sensibility." I also think of such sensibility as the ground of being and creator of the world. Since we are part of that creation, we have access to it by means of our brain and nervous system. Thus, rather than consciousness stemming from either mind or matter, it is both simultaneously, like language is simultaneously means (sounds or letters) and meanings. Again if I've misrepresented anyone, my apologies in advance. Regards, Platt. . . . Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
