3 Comments
User's avatar
⭠ Return to thread
Andrew Cutler's avatar

Yeah, I'm using 'consciousness' in a colloquial sense (which is intentional, and mostly gets the point across). I could have talked about the Eve Theory of Recursive Self-Awareness but that doesn't quite roll off the tongue. Fom the standpoint of ego growing out of tension between id and super-ego, it's also interesting that conscience and conscious have the same etymology.

Expand full comment
Seeds of Science's avatar

"What’s the Use of Consciousness? How the Stab of Conscience Made Us Really Conscious"

https://www.blogs.uni-mainz.de/fb05philosophie/files/2013/04/Frith_Metzinger_Regret_2016_penultimate.pdf

Some interesting thoughts on how regret/shame may have played a role in the evolution of consciousness

Expand full comment
Arturo Macias's avatar

I don’t know: unconsciousness for me is the situation of a rock.

But let’s put it this way: as a Bentham utilitarian I care for animal suffering but not for animal life.

Probably what you describe is that what makes the continuation of life valuable: that jump from “undifferentiated” pain and pleasure to the individualist consciousness.

Expand full comment