Conatus: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

C O N A T U S

further articulated — consciousness is more readily proven to exist than the ‘objective’ material world. Consciousness carries with it the implication not just of being a thinking thing, but also having an awareness of one's thoughts and being able to reflect on them — being aware that we’re aware, so to speak. Does consciousness exist, and if so, how has it developed? Are humans unique in having consciousness? The differing views on these questions can be summarised as follows:

Consciousness does not really exist. Thought is just a by-product of the brain, which is wholly or largely determined by purely physical causes. In this respect humans are no different to all other life forms.

OR:

Consciousness exists, but is only developed, or so it seems, in humans. Animals often seem to act as if they are conscious feeling things, but in fact they act mainly from instinct.

OR:

All animals are conscious to a degree, but consciousness is most highly developed in humans.

OR:

All existence has consciousness, including so-called inanimate objects. (This view is known as ‘panpsychism’.)

The first view — consciousness does not really exist — has the problem of explaining both the correspondence of thoughts with actual events and the problem of thoughts which do not seem

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