From: Arlo J. Bensinger (ajb102@psu.edu)
Date: Wed Dec 07 2005 - 13:00:08 GMT
Hi Ham,
You dismissed several questions, saying that don't refute your statements, but
you provide no answer? Why is that? Let me clarify what your saying below, and
reask these questions.
I had asked...
Where does this attribute come from? Did my consciousness exist before my birth?
Would you say a "human being" left at birth on a deserted island twenty years
later has a "consciousness" that is different than the "consciousness" of a
cat? If so, is "consciousness" a feature of human DNA? Or is it bestowed on
those born "human" by a "higher power"?
[Ham]
As with everything else in our relative world, consciousness in the living
organism develops over time and the level of consciousness varies among the
species. What distinguishes man from other creatures is two-fold: awareness of
self, and sensibility of value.
[Arlo]
Consciousness is a continuum, ranging from low-high, with humans at the top of
the totem. Okay.
What is it that gives man this priviliged "awareness of self" and "sensibility
of value"? Why does man possess it, but not Platt's cat? Is it a function of
DNA? Or is it a function of "something else"? If so, what?
[Ham]
These hypothetical questions about growing up in a box, being left on a
desert island, and the effects of social isolation are cynical attempts to
challenge proprietary awareness. But in fact, they don't.
[Arlo]
So says you. This is like me replying "Ham, your statements are cynical attempts
to disprove collective consciousness. But they don't." And nothing more. So, I
restate..
Would you say a "human being" left at birth on a deserted island twenty years
later has a "consciousness" that is different than the "consciousness" of a
cat?
[Ham]
You and I and every other human being from adolescence onward has self-awareness
and value-sensibility, irrespective of his or her environmental conditions.
The only exception to this would be individuals suffering from autism or severe
brain damage, and even these maladies do not preclude cognizant awareness.
[Arlo]
Okay, here you provide some answer. Your position would be that even an infant
left on a deserted island has the same "consciousness" (on your continuum of
low-high) as you or me. Since you only point to genetic defects are indicators
of a lack of consciousness in a person, I'll conclude that your position is
that "consciousness" is a property of genetics.
So, since genes, brain size, chemistry, body appearences, size, all sorts of
other genetic traits are variable among the human population, is
"consciousness" variable too? Or is this an exclusively "absolute" trait that
is in everyone the same (except those born with defects)? What I am getting at,
is there any genetic variability to "consciousness" across the human
population? If not, how so?
[Ham]
I continue to be amazed at the efforts of MoQ participants like yourself to
refute the proprietary nature of conscious awareness and man's role as the
world's decision-maker. Perhaps you can explain to me why this seemingly
self-evident principle is so repugnant to you.
[Arlo]
Like Platt, you suffer from a delusion of dichotomy. It was, in fact, "me" you
included a statement recognizing the "unique proprietary experience" of the
"individual". Unlike you, I see that there is much more to the "me" than my
"unique proprietary experience", and that is the "shared symbolic experience of
the collective consciousness", without which the software program in my head
running the program "Arlo" would be non-existent (to use Pirsig's metaphor).
To you, I suppose, "consciousness" derives from human genetics (the only way to
explain why an infant left of a deserted island would have the same level of
"consciousess" as someone raised in a cultural surround), for me
"consciousness" emerges through the biological individual's appropriation of
the "collective consciousness". This appropriation gives her the agency to act,
but also constrains her actions, it gives her a historical dialogue in which
her activity is a part of, but it also structures her to act in particular
ways.
Arlo
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