[MD] human consciousness

[gav]

heya,
the question of what makes human consciousness human is important i feel.
where and how do we diverge from the awareness that animals, plants, rocks etc have?

i think that the second order awareness that humans possess (awareness of awareness) is one way to describe the difference.  this sort of awareness is what allows humans to make an object of themselves (the subject) and everything else of course. it is this awareness that allows us to construct  a world from language...i guess animals do this too but their world, whilst shaped by their forms of communication, is still one world - that is they can have nought but direct experience.

the world that we humans have constructed from language and culture is now a separate world (schizophrenia is the direct result of this).

an aside: did you know that schizophrenics are typically hyper-rational people? that is it is their sensitivity, both intellectually and aesthetically, that increases the possibility of schizophrenic episodes. in other words (individual) schizophrenia is the result of a subtle confusion between two worlds - the immediate world of phenomena and the constructed world of culture (the simulacrum in baudrillard's parlance): this differentiation of the two worlds, in a healthier, more advanced medical/psychological landscape, would be recognised as an indicator of discernment, not illness.

as long as there is a chasm between the phenomenal world and the world of concepts there continues to be a problem...cultural impasse. it is the mission of philosophy and art to bridge this chasm.

The MOQ does this by integrating the world of concepts within the world of phenomena. by recognising the derivative nature of the world of concepts we are freed from its tendency to reify reality. 

but this world of concepts is, for most, the real world...this is the world that we (unconsciously) give meaning to every day - it is the intersubjective world of cultural consensus. a game we all play, tacitly accepting the rules that we have imposed on ourselves.

this world of concepts is a necessary expedient. it means things get done....and yet this is not enough is it? life is more than getting a job done. for one thing it should be done well...

the world of concepts needs work, and that is why we are all here. thanks to bob and many others we have the raw materials to renovate our world of concepts...such that it can accomodate value, beauty, and all the stuff that makes living living.

but in this project there needs to be a continual checking process. as we try to reshape the world of concepts we need to keep checking our measurements, so to speak. that is we need to continually compare our conceptual constructions with the dynamic blueprint of the phenomenal world.

this checking process is often beautifully and spontaneously brought into being through humour. i see humour as a way to pierce the veil of the world of concepts - letting the light in and showing the whole constructed world for the mutually agreed pretense that it is. the epiphany of the punchline.

seriousness is the enemy of play. seriousness is what turns play into work. the divine play - Lila - is the world of concepts that we all play our roles in as willy s bacon said a while back. if we don't remember that 'it's just a ride' as bill hicks said then we develop psychopathological symptoms both culturally and individually (cos they are of course inexorably linked).

so is this what makes us human? the ability to laugh? maybe. hyenas may beg to differ but are they seeing through their world of concepts to the dynamic ground from whence they have been extracted or are they just creepy little buggers? i would say the latter. 






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