my argument is this:
consciousness - my consciousness - is awareness - and this awareness is awareness of
itself - of awareness - in the context of non-aware reality
and the important term here is 'in'
and the argument from this -
therefore consciousness is the inside of the world -
it is that dimension of the world
the internality of the world
(I do not think the whole world has an inside
- only 'aspects' - regions of it
I favour a Leibnitzian - monad like theory here)
so the argument is essentially a logical one
that which has an inside by its nature has an outside
(though the reverse does not hold - not all 'outsides' have an inside)
so we begin I suggest with reality -
consciousness in the world
the world as two dimensional
further I do not think this can be explained
it is simply - what is
(the question is correct description)
the reality we begin with
the existential reality
I would suggest this view is better based - this theory of mind / body - than i.e. the
mind-body identity theory of Place and Smart
which rests on a denial of the internal - as a real dimension of reality
and the assumption that all that there is - is surface - and surface explanations are all
that are required or indeed possible
quite a bizarre idea
the language of the inner life is the language of art and under this umbrella I would
include all religious description of the inner life
we may wish to hold that the surface world -
the world of the surface - of matter is determined
it is clear though that the world of consciousness is not
it is essentially - not
hence creativity - art
and what these activities - these descriptions - these languages - address and express is
the indeterminacy of consciousness
so
we have internal logic and 'knowledge' - and external logic and 'knowledge'
reality for human beings is divided
as to the unity - all we have here is the truth - stark and simple - of skepticism
we do not know
there is no unified theory
the idea of - a third position suggests itself here - i.e. the idea of sub specie aeternitatis
- the unified point of view - the point of view of everything -
but in reality there is no such point of view
granted there should be
the fact of a two dimensional reality indicates a unity
a unity we imagine should be seen
but it is not - not revealed
- we can characterize it as the unity that underlies
- or the totality
- etc. etc.
the truth is - it is the unknown
and a corollary of this is that human beings are essentially unknowns
