the first moment of consciousness is awareness
(whatever this is)
and awareness of awareness
which is exactly what it is
reflectivity
consciousness knows itself as itself
this is the fact - the presentation
I frankly don't see how this can be further explicated
any supposed explication is just that - or a statement of that which is to be explicated -
it is that is a reflection of and on consciousness
so - here the explication is actually a statement of that which is to be explicated
and of this
there is no explication
the second moment of consciousness is awareness of what it is not - the world - the
outside of consciousness - the object
so consciousness asserts itself and what it is not -
x and ~x
this is the proposition of consciousness
x and ~x
the x's here are not just short hand
they are the unknown realities
the assertion of x (consciousness) is an unknown
the negative of x is an unknown
some have taken this to mean that consciousness brings nothingness to the world -
this is primarily Jean Paul Satre's argument
his argument confuses the negative and non-existence
the negative of consciousness is not nothingness - it is non-consciousness
existence here is not at issue
(existence is not in fact a problem
existence is a question of classification )
what consciousness brings to the world is assertion and its denial
it is the ground of assertion - and denial
consciousness asserts itself positively and defines itself negatively
the definition is really nothing more or less than this
consciousness is not that which is non-conscious
awareness is only definable given the contrast with that which is not aware
in a world with only consciousness - there would be no definition
and hence nothing to speak of
such a world is literally indefinable
for mind to have any functional reality - any reality - it must exist in contrast to the
non-consciousness
and so too the non-conscious
a conscious monism or a non-conscious monism is illiterate
the fundamental operation of consciousness -
everything else is derivative
awareness is assertion and denial
awareness / consciousness is x and ~x
such is the nature of consciousness
and this is not a substantial definition - rather a formal definition
it leaves issues of substance open
there is no ontological commitment in consciousness
the conscious world - or the world of consciousness is -
logical space
the space of x and ~x
this is to say - or another way to say it is that in a world where x and ~x could not be
asserted
there is no consciousness
is it not true that ~x is contained in x?
how else could it be?
x is only defined given ~x
~x only defined given x
consciousness comes into being when reality asserts itself
this is really all that can be said
and in this assertion is contained its denial
we can perhaps say assertion is thus the essential characteristic of consciousness
the non-conscious does not assert
it is non-assertive
and assertion is only possible - only makes any sense - against that which is not
asserted
only - that is given its negative
therefore
the world
