[MD] Nagarjuna and the MOQ

[Ham Priday]

Evening, Marsha --

> Will you explain to me what you mean by "conscious locus"?
> Where did your idea of consciousness come from?  Why do you
> believe it?   Maybe I've been all wrong in thinking the experience
> of "direct awareness" has any relationship to what you are calling
> "conscious locus."

I'll be happy to try, although to me this question is like asking: Please 
explain what you mean by   "knowing".

I'm not sure, but I seem to recall that the significance of the word "locus" 
in the context of consciousness first struck me in a statement by Platt 
(remember him?) some years ago.  Platt was not primarily interested in 
metaphysics, but he said something to the effect that "we are the locus of 
our reality," which is not only true but descriptive of the self.  He 
referred me to Donald Hoffman, a cognitivc scientist who also happens to be 
a subjectivist.  Subjectivism is the view that accords primacy to subjective 
experience as fundamental to all measure and law.  Sometimes confused with 
Solipsism, it holds that the nature and existence of every object depends 
solely on someone's subjective awareness of it.

Since this may be a new concept to you, here's a précis of what Wikipedia 
has to say about it:

"Metaphysical subjectivism is the theory that reality is what we perceive to 
be real, and that  there is no underlying true reality that exists 
independently of perception.  One can also hold  that it is consciousness 
rather than perception that is reality (subjective idealism).  This is in 
contrast to metaphysical objectivism and philosophical realism, which assert 
that there is an underlying 'objective' reality which is perceived in 
different ways.

"This viewpoint should not be confused with the stance that 'all is 
illusion' or that 'there is no such thing as reality.'  Metaphysical 
subjectivists hold that reality is real enough.  They conceive, however, 
that the nature of reality as related to a given consciousness is dependent 
on that consciousness.  This has its philosophical basis in the writings of 
Descartes (cogito ergo sum), and forms a cornerstone of Søren Kierkegaard's 
philosophy."

I included the following Donald Hoffman quote in my book (p.37), which 
should give you the general idea subjectivists are espousing:

"I believe that consciousness and its contents are all that exists. 
Space-time, matter and fields never were the fundamental denizens of the 
universe, but have always been, from the beginning, among the humbler 
contents of consciousness, dependent on it for their very being.  The world 
of our daily experience - the world of tables, chairs, stars and people, 
with their attendant shapes, smells, feels and sounds - is a 
species-specific user interface to a realm far more complex, a realm whose 
essential character is conscious.  ...If this be right, if consciousness is 
fundamental, then we should not be surprised that, despite centuries of 
effort by the most brilliant minds, there is as yet no physical theory of 
consciousness, no theory that explains how mindless matter and energy or 
fields could be, or cause, conscious experience."  --[D.A. Hoffman, Visual 
Intelligence]

Now, I'm an Essentialist, not a subjectivist; but anyone in search of an 
alternative to S/O duality, in the Western tradition at least, would do well 
to consider this "philosophy of mind" before forming a metaphysical 
conclusion.  Whatever "else exists" out there amounts to nothing unless 
there is subjective awareness of it.  This is as true in Essentialism as it 
is in Qualityism or any other metaphysical ontology.

So to answer your question, Marsha, I would say that subjective awareness --  
whether you call it consciousness, sensibility, or simply 'knowing' -- is 
primary to existential reality.  And it only occurs in the individuated 
state of 'being-aware'.  (I'm sure you will find corollaries of this concept 
in the doctrines of Eastern mysticism.)

Thanks for the query.  I hope I've satisfied your curiosity.

In support of the subjective Self,
Ham