Ancient
Greece & You
Joe Greenwald, Champlain Valley
Union High School, VT
Consciousness
The term consciousness occurs in philosophy
and real life due to the fact that it is a controversial topic
that deals with the works of psychology and common speech.
It is known as, and translated in different
ways depending on the situation and the person translating it.
The definition given by John Locke states that "the perception
of what passes in a man's own mind." He then goes on to
say that it may also be called "internal sense" because
consciousness is a reflection of one's mind and it's actions.
Others such as G.F. Stout started to use
the term "introspection" to define consciousness. "Introspection
is 'to attend to the workings of one's own mind'" (G.F.
Stout). Introspection is looking at what is going on in one's
mind. This form of looking at oneself gives self-knowledge. It
is believed that it is necessary that a person know and be conscious
of their own mental state, in order to be considered conscious.
So we put these terms and some others altogether
and came up with the definition, "the awareness of our state
of being, and the states themselves. Consciousness is not only
seeing, but an internal sense, such as introspection. It is not
necessary to be aware of the state one is in, but simply the
fact that they are in it. Such as an emotion.
Consciousness can be broken down into two
different categories: speaking and seeing. If one speaks of being
conscious of something they are taking it into account. If one
sees something they are taking it into account, but then seeing
becomes an act of consciousness. They will then not only be aware
of what they are seeing, but also that they are conscious of
seeing it.
Consciousness II
A Definition of Consciousness
Consciousness is a very ambiguous
term that has many, many different uses. An organism can be considered
conscious as in they react to what is going on around them. The
term consciousness can be used as a description of a deliberate
actions, and as a second way to say that an organism is awake.
A system is considered conscious when it can react based on information.
A mental state is sometimes said to be conscious when it can
be reported verbally. All of these phenomena still need to be
explained, but they have been dubbed the easy problems
of consciousness because they can eventually be understood using
a simple scientific method. The hard problem of consciousness
is the problem of understanding consciousness in terms of the
overall experience of a person. The overall experience of a person
includes mental states, reactions to objects, and general feelings
that he or she has. It is the hard problem because it cannot
be measured or tested. There is no way to understand exactly
what is going on in other peoples heads, or even ones own head.
Is it necessary to have
Self-Knowledge to have Consciousness?
Self-knowledge has been defined
as the achievement of the knowledge of ones mental states. In
other words, it is the awareness, but not necessarily a judgment
of what is going on in ones head. One of the debates surrounding
consciousness is whether or not it is necessary to have self-knowledge
for a mental state to be conscious.
The general theory is that self-knowledge
is necessary for a mental state to be considered conscious. Basically
this means that if a person is looking at a computer they have
to realize that they know what it is, and understand that they
are looking at it. Unfortunately self-knowledge is considered
a mental state, and that leads to a problem because sometimes
there is a difference between a person knowing something and
that person knowing that they know something. For example, people
often learn things when they are very young, and then forget
about them later on. Although they may know what the memory is
on some level, they still do not know that they know it, and
therefore they do not have self-knowledge even though they may
be conscious of what is going on in their head. Another problem
with the theory is that young children are conscious but there
is no way to prove it because they dont necessarily know what
they are seeing. Even if they do know what they are seeing it
is difficult for them to describe it because they dont necessarily
have the vocabulary and skills that they need to give a good
description.
Philosophers modified the original
theory that self-knowledge needs to follow every mental state
so that it would make sense in all cases. The first thing that
they did to fix the theory was they defined a first order mental
state. A first order mental state is a mental state that is not
about another mental state. Since self-knowledge is a mental
state about other mental states it does not fall into the first
order mental state category. One could then say that every first
order mental state must be accompanied with self-knowledge and
still make sense. The theory was also modified to allow for people
like young children, who dont necessarily know what they are
seeing. A final theory which cant be argued as easily is that
self-knowledge must accompany every first order mental state
if the individual has the understanding to describe what is in
its description. This only applies to conscious mental states,
there is a widespread belief that there are unconscious mental
states as well. In general that belief is justified, because
it appears to be possible for a person to be mistaken about feelings,
thoughts, or opinions.
States of Consciousness
The only conclusion that
philosophers can come to about states of consciousness is that
they do exist, and in multiple forms. Some people define consciousness
as any mental state, or whatever is brought about to make it
mental. Even if a person is angry and they dont realize it, the
anger is considered a different state of consciousness. In one
theory a psychologist claimed that in any given sensation there
are two parts, consciousness, which is the factor of different
sensations that is the same, and the object, which is how one
sensation is different from any other sensation. The psychologist
who devised the theory managed to contradict himself later on,
when writing about how consciousness and the object were related.
At one point he insisted that there was a link between the two
called knowing, and at another time consciousness was that link.
It was also believed that consciousness could be sorted into
different categories, called states of consciousness. Some examples
of these states would be thinking, imagining, and believing.
A theory was then formed based that said that states of consciousness
were based on behavioral dispositions. This view is called philosophical
behaviorism. People who believe in philosophical behaviorism
tried to analyze the states of consciousness and how they translated
into behavioral dispositions. The entire theory of philosophical
behaviorism is quite old, and it has large gaps in it.
First of all, the theory that
there are different states of consciousness has been almost entirely
rearranged or torn apart. As many philosophers have pointed out,
the logic that every mental state is conscious is circular, because
that means that consciousness can be described as being in a
mental state. Instead of following that circular logic, philosophers
have created a different category for the mental states that
are not readily apparent. These mental states are known as unconscious
mental states. The knowledge that there are unconscious mental
states seems to be intuitive with most people. It is easy to
think of an example of a time when you were noticed that a friend
was feeling angry or upset before they knew. The theory that
there are unconscious mental states also rules out the hypothesis
that behavior does not originate from within. Dispositions, which
were not defined very well to begin with, were also ruled out
as a source of behavior.
Introspection
Introspection is one of the concepts
of consciousness that is frequently argued. Introspection is
reflecting on what is going on inside of ones head as events
are occurring. There is a difference between introspecting and
making judgments on what one is thinking about, just as there
is a difference between seeing something and making judgments
about it. Some people believe that introspection is not possible
at all because to do this one would have to divide their brain
into two parts, the part that is having the experience and the
part that is noticing what the other part is doing. The idea
that one organ can divide itself into multiple parts leads some
to believe that introspection cant be possible because the idea
doesnt make sense.
Some argue that it is pretty
difficult to say that introspection doesnt exist because it is
a major part of consciousness. It is the thing that verifies
that feelings actually exist. Retrospection is not enough to
verify consciousness because to be able to reflect on an experience
it is necessary to have known about the experience in the first
place. This argument does not take self-knowledge into account
though. Self-knowledge is also considered a verification of mental
states, and it is not incorrect as frequently as introspection.
The major downfall of introspection
is that it seems possible for people to reflect incorrectly on
what they are thinking. If the thinking is incorrect then it
is not a true reflection on what they are feeling at the time,
therefore introspection is not necessarily a valid verification
of consciousness. If introspection is observation of ones mental
states, there has to be a place in the brain where the mental
states originate. Introspection itself is a mental state, and
therefore not capable of judging other mental states. Since introspection
is incorrect it is not considered a good indicator of consciousness.
Philosophers of relevence
to consciousness
John Locke
"I no sooner perceived myself
in the world than I found myself in a storm,"
-John Locke
John Locke (1632-1704) lived
in a time of great turmoil considering the genius that he inspired.
The son of county solicitor, a small land owner, and a soldier,
Locke was in an ideal place for education and influence. War
and pestilence, while prevalent in the surrounding English countryside,
did appear to effect Locke's upbringing. John Locke attended
Westminster school in 1646 and then passed to Christ Church,
Oxford, as a junior student, in 1652 where he stayed for over
thirty years until he changed his studies in philosophy from
Decartes to Aristotle and he was elected to a senior studentship
in 1659. After this he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society
in 1668 and began his medical career and in 1674 he graduated
as a bachelor in medicine.
Early on in his medical career,
John began a round-about friendship with Lord Ashley at Shaftsbury.
Locke was very valuable to the lord, as he became a live in advisor
to the statesman. Locke looked over Ashley's health, advised
him on politics, helped to arrange the lord's marriage, and nursed
his Ashley's growing son. In 1672 Lord Ashley became lord Chancellor
Shaftesbury, Locke became his secretary for presentations to
benefices, and, in the following year, was made secretary to
the board of trade. In 1675 his politics stopped because of his
failing health and the replacement of Shaftesbury as lord Chancellor.
Locke traveled to the south of France where he stayed, recovering,
until 1679.
When politics surround Shaftesbury
became rebellious and suspicions began to arouse as to Locke's
involvement, Locke moved again and stayed in Holland for a good
deal of time. Locke moved from town to town trying to avoid English
arrest, all the time keeping a journal of his thoughts and philosophies.
Locke saw rise to an English rebellion, as he traveled throughout
Holland. The occupation was giving way to hard feelings. In his
travels he eventually started a friendship with Philip van Limbroch,
the leader of the Remonstrant clergy, and the scholar and liberal
theologian to whom Epistola de Tolerantia was dedicated. Shortly
after this it is also noted that Locke's Essay concerning Human
Understanding seems to have reached its final form and was published
in Leclerc's Bibliotheque universelle in 1688.
When he returned home to England
there was a new power in command and it realized Locke's skills
and potential. He was offered a position as diplomat to Berlin,
but Locke declined because of his failing health. He was made
commissioner of appeals in May 1689, and, from 1696 to 1700,
he was a commissioner of trade and plantations at a salary of
L1000 a year. In 1691 he was persuaded to move to Essex where
he lived out the rest of his days persuading others to his interesting
brand of philosophy in the house of Francis and Lady Masham.
He lived there until his eventual death on October 28th, 1704.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was
born in Leipzig, Germany, on July 1, 1646. His early days were
spent being raised by his father, a professor of moral philosophy,
who influenced and molded young Leibniz into becoming a member
of the academic world. Before this; however, he became a servant
to many noblemen where his duties included traveling throughout
Europe meeting the most influential men of his time - of particularly
formative importance were the astronomer, mathematician and physicist
Huygens, and the philosopher Spinoza. With these influences it
was no wonder that Leibniz became one of the great polymaths
of all time.
Leibniz was a breakthrough at
whatever he did. He created a new system of cataloging as a librarian.
As a mathematician he made new discoveries in topology and discovered
calculus just a few years after Newton. As an engineer her created
mining machines, calculating machines, and even clocks. Leibniz
also dabbled as a physicist and came up with many theorems concerning
momentum. On top of this he also made contributions to linguistics,
history, aesthetics and political theory.
Leibniz used his vast knowledge
and understanding to tackle many problems in the political society.
He was concerned with reuniting the divided Church, which was
due to the reformation of the 16th century. He also put his skills
as a diplomat to use the development of mathematics, because
of the disputes from the English concerning calculus. Leibniz
saw the struggle ahead and knew it would cost the timeliness
of mathematical development, which it did.
While Leibniz was a genius he,
sadly, completed very view projects. The nature of his life stretched
him so thin that it was hard to keep one task going on top of
the other. Most of his works that comes to us today are only
fragments and pieces. There are some pieces that he is acclaimed
for, such as his career in metaphysics, which spanned for over
thirty years.
Though sometimes it is hard to
identify Leibniz's true passion he was a logician at heart. He
was on a search of truth and he tried to conduit it with metaphysics.
As a mathematician he found the routes of calculus, together
blending with stunning views on life and consciousness. His philosophies
were blended together so well that on each level that he worked,
they all worked together.
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was born at Konigsberg
in East Prussia on April 22nd, 1724. His life revolved around
his town, and he never venture far from his home. When he was
17 he attended the university in Konigsberg and began his philosophical
studies with Martin Knutzen. With Knutzen he acquired a knowledge
and understanding of some of the better minds that had come before
him such as Newton and Wolff. He was deep into his studies when
in 1746 his father passed away and he left Konigsberg and began
tutoring families for nine years, after which he eventually came
home. From 1755 through 1770 he was considered a Privatdozent
(unsalaried professor) in the university of Konigsberg. In 1770
he became the professor of philosophy which he held until 1797.
He then lived out the remaining seven years of his life in Konigsberg,
writing and continuing to learn.
Kant's literary life was viewed
in two critical periods. The first, and pre-critical period extended
from 1747 to 1781 in which he published several books concerning
older philosophies, that came especially from Wolff. "Gedanken
von der wahren Schatzung der lebendigen Krfte" (Thoughts
on the True Estimation of Living Forces) is a prime example of
that work, since it was his first published book in 1747. In
conjunction with this he also published many papers and essays
agreeing the works of Newton and other physicists like him. He
also published a book concerning his doctor's dissertation, "On
Fire" (De Igne), and the work "Principiorum Primorum
Cognitionis Metaphysicae Nova Dilucidatio" (A New Explanation
of the First Principles of Metaphysical Knowledge) in 1775. These
pieces earned him his position at the university and also brought
out his thoughts concerning the nature of being and metaphysics
itself. After this he spent time in the university adopting his
own philosophy and then building for his own work, the "Critique
of Pure Reason," which began the real critical period of
his life.
During this period it was said
that Kant woke from his "dogmatic slumber" (Hume) and
started to create his own philosophies. He had lost faith in
many of the metaphysical teachings that he had followed and lost
the reasoning for the physiological basis behind most of the
works considering metaphysics. He strayed away from the traditional
teachings at this point and began to question human experience.
His first work in this area was the "Critique of Pure Reason,"
where he began to challenge, concepts, designs, and principals
concerning human reason. He published more works challenging
one priori (principal) after another. His work turned into critique
and the study of the "transcendental" of human behavior.
Eventually he came down to identifying the business of philosophy
in three questions: What can I know? What ought I to do? What
may I hope for? With these three questions answered, and by having
the third answer the first, Kant believed it was easy to evaluate
human reactions and behavior.
