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In the opening of Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, Ayn Rand writes: "Consciousness, as a state of awareness" How many states of awareness are there? |
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The term, consciousness, has many meanings and nuances. Memory of yesterday is consciousness of yesterday, but not awareness of yesterday, because awareness is immediate apprehension. The activity of cognition, which Rand wanted, in that passage, to emphasize, required her to direct the reader's attention away from one's vocabulary, one's memories, one's emotions, etc. All these things exist mentally, and are in that sense a part of consciousness, but are sometimes passive and/or stored. The real-time, sensory-perceptual interaction with one's environment that is awareness requires the activity Rand wanted to draw our attention to. Thus, the phraseology quoted was elected. Secondarily: There are distinctions to be made regarding sensory-perceptual awareness. There are things we are aware of and know we are aware of, and things we find we must have been aware of, but don't recall having paid any attention to, etc. |
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I can think of three right off the bat:
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Hmm, I would call those "levels" of consciousness or awareness. I'm not sure I would call them different states of awareness. That seems to imply that you can be in one, and then the other. But humans, for example, always have both percepts and concepts in their context, at the same time. Hmm as well: I would say that sensation, perception, and conception are three forms of awareness -- all of which could (though would not necessarily be) be simultaneously present in one state of awareness. Rand uses the term sensation in several ways - as a mechanism of external stimuli > response in 'lower' animals; as a type of awareness - arrived from sensory information (sense organs) e.g., pain, hunger and also the information that organs receive that lead to perception e.g., sight, sound. Only the second one really has any meaning in terms of awareness. Awareness, Rand defines as "perceiving that which exists" as such differing states is somewhat of a misnomer; either you are aware of what exists or you are not. There is no middle ground in terms of existence.
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