Why Does Consciousness Exist

Tomorrow we celebrate the Day of the Dead--a ceremony where a society pays homage to those who have passed, and planted their seeds in the lives of others. Our ancestors influence us and the lessons they have passed down throughout generations; however, not all lessons were the same. All were influenced by their time period and personal sense of morality. That influence was then conveyed to their child--or whoever was willing to listen. These stories are what provided us with culture.

In his text “What is it like to be a bat?” of 1974 Thomas Nagel claims that consciousness is the

Consciousness allows a person to recognize their existence, and subsequently, to form their essence. The

According to Martin Schonfield in “Animal Consciousness: Paradigm Change in the Life Sciences” “In the old analytic climate, claims that animals are sentient raised methodological and ideological problems and seemed debatable at best.”(Schonfield p. 1) Claims that animals were self-aware or intelligent were regarded as unfounded. “The task of science in the past four centuries had been to demythologize the past.”(Schonfield p.1) Daniel C. Dennett in “Animal Consciousness: What Matters and Why” states “that speculating about animal consciousness makes no sense.” (Dennett p.19) He wonders why we need to know about animal consciousness at all. I disagree with Dennett and will explore the possibilities of animals actually experiencing

In 1838 Charles Darwin wrote in his journal "Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work worthy the interposition of a deity. More humble and I think truer to consider him created from animals". (Rachels, 1990) Daniel C. Dennett refers to Darwin's theory of evolution as a universal acid, a theory so powerful it seeps through every traditional concept and leaves behind a revolutionized world-view, resulting not only in a fundamental shift in the way in which we perceive ourselves as human beings, but more importantly, in the death of God. (Dennett, 1996) The moral implications of evolution are devastating: to reduce man to a by-product of an algorithmic process is to say that man is nothing

Consciousness is your awakened state of mind in which you are cognizant of and are able to distinguish between realities while also being preemptive to one’s thoughts, emotions, and feelings through the establishment of the fundamental aspect of student-object relationships in which one is not only aware and mindful of his surroundings, but oneself as well at any given moment as the present renders sentiments of familiarity, presumably rectifying preconceived notions that consciousness is merely an illusion and is rather more so a universal force and a collective body of existence and self-realization.

The apex of human existence is to uncover what is human existence or further what is the reason anything exists and especially what does it mean to have conscious thought; in other words, to find out what it means to be human. This can be further expand upon on as what is everyone’s individual purpose and how would those purposes change based on the social, economic, and political situations which vary between person to person and even civilization to civilization. Does being human mean one is just an animal with conscience thought or is the reason behind why consciousness something much more than pure natural selection, because according to the theory of evolution natural selection is only a need to either help keep the moto of survival of

Disagreement about whether theory of mind emerged around 40,000 years ago to as far back as 200,000. Baron-Cohen (1999) proposes that homo sapiens emerged complete with theory of mind. Mithen (1998), using evidence from studies on apes,

“Many people are afraid of Emptiness, however, because it reminds them of Loneliness. Everything has to be filled in, it seems—appointment books, hillsides, vacant lots—but when all the spaces are filled, the Loneliness really begins.” (p.147)

Describe what evolutionary psychologists mean when they employ the term ‘theory of mind’. Use examples and research studies from Book 1, Chapter 2 to show why this theory is important in evolutionary psychology.

Humans have for centuries pondered on the mind, its existence, its beginning, it’s limit, it’s substance, and fought many different arguments against them all. But how do we know if any animals have a mind? Is intelligence unique to humans? Professor Donald Griffin has pointed out that “consciousness is not a tidy all-or-nothing entity, it varies with age, culture, experience and gender. And if animals have conscious experiences, these presumably vary widely as well.” If humans have minds, it must be possible that animals also have minds. And though no one would believe that earthworms and earwigs have thought processes like our own, it has been proven that chimps share 98% of genome with humans. Chimps have also shown that they can lie

The chapter states that if animals are conscious, their conscious level probably varies from the simplest feelings to thinking about the common problems they can face, and ways to avoid it.

Consciousness is both an effect and a cause: it is the cumulative effect of our thinking, and it is because of our consciousness that we experience life as we do. Not surprisingly, we find a similar view of consciousness in the writings of Judge Thomas Troward, a pillar of New Thought whose teachings influenced Ernest Holmes. Troward taught that when an end is secure in mind, the means to that end is also secure. However, let us not delude ourselves into thinking that because we have something in mind, that we will necessarily have it in hand; nor should we try to ignore the fundamental difference between grasping an idea, and grasping at an object. Although securing a thing in mind is a necessary precursor to securing the experience of it in the world, the mental equivalent is not the physical fact. It is difficult, if not impossible, to recognize a good thing when you see it, if you do not already have in mind the knowledge, belief, image and understanding of what is good for you. Consequently, until we are able to secure our good, mentally, we are not able to embrace, embody, express and experience that good as a fact of our life. Fortunately though, both the end we have in mind, and the means to it, are aspects of one 's consciousness, and by having the end securely in mind we do have the means to that end. This is somewhat similar to the fact that when we know our destination, the necessary means of travel is also known. For instance, if we intend to cross a room, we

There is also a disagreement with animals not having consciousness. “In dogs, cats, and other animals there is neither intelligence nor a spiritual soul in the usual sense, they eat without pleasure, they cry without pains they believe without knowing it and they desire nothing.” They say consciousness is an “epiphenomenon” that has no effect on behavioral and therefore cannot have an adaptive value. Further arguments revolve around the ability of animals to feel pain or suffering. Others have argued that pain can be demonstrated by adverse reactions to negative stimuli that are non-purposeful or even maladaptive.

I think it is reasonable to reason from intelligence and consciousness because I think we discover and realize (not imagine) the evidence of it throughout the evolution of the universe. I think it unreasonable to claim that consciousness is a byproduct of an unconscious process. The consciousness and the intelligence we see as the culmination of the evolutionary process is but the current expression (and evidence) of the creative consciousness that begins the process. It is a humbling concept. Perhaps we are not the only species that expresses the life and nature of an infinite, universal Being. Perhaps we are only the current culmination of the evolutionary process. Perhaps Life could do better. I believe it can, will