What is the nature of consciousness

[James Markham]

What essentially is personal existence, when divorced from its identification with personality. And what can we say about such an event?

So in other words, what is that part of us that is common to all, as a illustration of what that essence is, we can think in terms of common experience, such as excitement, love or even a fear of the dark being an experience that is at an initiation stage, devoid of personal identity, and so is the same for all. Another way to imagine it is in the case of a new born baby, almost devoid of personal identity, feeling the warmth of its mother for the first time, and being naturally compelled to make its first attempt to feed.

[duszek]

Personal existence is essentially the awareness of one´s life history, stored in the memory.

A person suffering from severe amnesia loses his personal existence, I suppose.

[Felasco]

Post subject: What is the nature of consciousness

The inherently divisive nature of thought, dividing itself in to two, in order to observe itself.

As example, consider the common phrase...

I am thinking.

[duszek]

Is the adjective "personal" in "personal existence" defining or non-defining (= a mere additional attribute) ?

In other words:

do we have two sub-wholes of existence in the whole of existence ?
Personal existence and impersonal existence.

What would be good examles of impersonal existence ?

[kowalskil]

Is the adjective "personal" in "personal existence" defining or non-defining (= a mere additional attribute) ?

In other words: do we have two sub-wholes of existence in the whole of existence ? Personal existence and impersonal existence. ...

I use the terms "objective physical reality" and "subjective spiritual reality." God and angels are spiritual entities. Here is a link to what I wrote about this:

http://pages.csam.montclair.edu/~kowals ... heist.html

Comments will be appreciated.

Ludwik

[Felasco]

http://pages.csam.montclair.edu/~kowals ... heist.html

Comments will be appreciated.

I suggest that quality articles like the one linked above merit threads of their own.

[James Markham]

Duszek, It may be easier to understand if we imagine personal identity as a conscious development, and that which it develops from is a collective subconsciousness. So I imagine that we as individual personalities, all have the same collective subconsciousness at the base of our being, and in practices such as meditation it is possible to clear the activity of being someone, and experience that part of us which is common to all.

This is obviously simply speculation, but what drives me to question our apparent personal uniqueness, is the fundamental experience of being conscious, and how it can be different in all of us beyond a matter of perspective. So as I said in the op, what is it that distinguishes consciousness in the early stages of life, when personal identity is lacking. And also, what is different about two individuals (aside from that which is physical) when they are in some singleminded state such as fear, or wonderment.

[kowalskil]

http://pages.csam.montclair.edu/~kowals ... heist.html

Comments will be appreciated.

I suggest that quality articles like the one linked above merit threads of their own.

[kowalskil]

http://pages.csam.montclair.edu/~kowals ... heist.html

Comments will be appreciated.

I suggest that quality articles like the one linked above merit threads of their own.

I hope that someone will start a thread of comments on what I wrote (see the link above). I am too busy with other things now. But I will follow the thread with great interest.

Ludwik

[wleg]

If I say: “I know that object is a pine tree, or I say: “I do not know what kind of object/tree that is”, then knowing and not knowing is a different state of mind. Having Knowledge is a mental condition or state made possible by our memory ability. It is easy then to know the nature of knowledge by understanding the “nature of the existence” of things and conditions we can knowledge of.

A Pine Tree is itself and not some other kind of tree because it has attributes that are different from the attributes of any other existing kind of tree. Thus, we are conscious/know the tree is a Pine Tree because we remember the attributes that relate/equate to the existence of a Pine Tree.

CONSCIOUSNESS/KNOWLEDGE gives us the ability to discuss the nature of different trees because we can remember which attributes equate to the existence of which trees. However, trees are not a subject of philosophical study, but the abstract concepts “existence “and knowledge/consciousness” are. It is impossible to discuss these concepts intelligently when they only exist as their definitions and universal comprehensive definitions of these concepts do not exist.

EXISTENCE: An abstract concept symbolizing the state of being of things and conditions as a construct of their attributes.

KNOWLEDGE/CONSCIOUSNESS: An abstract concept symbolizing the state of mind of recognizing which attributes equate to the existence of things and conditions.

Wayne Kelly Leggette Sr

[henry quirk]

"What essentially is personal existence, when divorced from its identification with personality (?)"

There can be no such divorce...'my' existence is what it is (personal, subjective) solely because 'I' am the one existing.

Take 'me' out of the mix and you got bio-automata.

#

"What is the nature of consciousness?"

When an animal of complexity apprehends information and uses that information to do 'this' or 'that', the animal is conscious.

When an animal of complexity apprehends information and reflects upon that information (actively compares and contrasts 'now' with 'then' and extrapolates 'later', placing itself in the middle of that assessing and extrapolation as 'I') then the animal is 'self'-conscious.

[jackles]

i would say that consciousness is a container.it is essentually a container with stuff inside it including the presents of our own being.

[henry quirk]

"consciousness is a container"

Poop, and not even very good, quality, poop.

Metaphors bite...

[James Markham]

Henry, to explain what I mean slightly better, when we take account of a new born baby, we can say he has a personal existence, but we can't really imagine that he has what we think of as personality, or an identity.

[duszek]

Are you referring to your own personal experience as a very young child ?

When did your personality or identity start to emerge ?