Consciousness
The contents of ‘consciousness’ encompass all that we are conscious of, aware of, or experience. These include not only experiences that we commonly associate with ourselves, such as thoughts, feelings, images, dreams, body experiences and so on, but also the experienced three-dimensional world (the phenomenal world) beyond our body surface.
Max Velmans (1996)
Studying consciousness is hard, at root there is a conundrum. A witty version of the puzzle was offered in Yellow Submarine* - having eating everything, we are left eating ourselves. Such circles inspired the Beetles, but are vexatious for our understandings. Velmans’ definition is reasonable, that consciousness embraces all experience, all phenomena, and such a view is much endorsed, including on these pages. This leaves us somewhat stymied, for if consciousness is everything, the help of an elucidatory
contrast
More on dichotomies in understanding.
is lost. Kant’s phenomena were partnered by
noumena,
On that about which there is nothing to be said.
which are, by definition, nothing whatsoever. We have to duck out, and seek the crutch of
metaphor.
The creative work of metaphors.
And so to
light
Another photograph of light breaking through clouds onto the sea.
and
emergence.
How do new things enter consciousness; does the notion of emergence help?
In the darkness of the wood there are no shadows, there is no contrast. When light does fall on consciousness itself, its shadow, unconsciousness, is immediately there. However, that falling light in this case, and
only
On the rich ambiguity of coming into the light which is ourselves: our consciousness.
this case, is consciousness itself.
The collection of essays introduced by Velmans remains valuable 30 years on. It was published by Routledge under the title The Science of Consciousness, the quote is from page 2. *The Beatles 1966 film had an impressive assemblage of surrealist ideas including the creature that ate everything around it, and then ate its tail, its body and its mouth.
The photograph was taken in south-west Scotland looking across Wigtown Bay from the home of Cream O’Galloway ice cream on Rainton Farm.
Above, hovering on blue introduces a link: click to go, move away to stay.
Saturday 7th June 2025
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