Mind

Abstract:

In this paper I will try to show that (i) consciousness makes a difference to human behaviour; (ii) the main difference it makes, is to provide us with the sense of self; (iii) this sense of self is produced because consciousness allows us to relate ourselves to other entities, and therefore to understand what kinds of relations exist between us and them; (iv) the basic mechanism that allows us to relate ourselves to other entities, place things in relation to each other, and more in general have conscious experiences, is represented by variations in the state of nervous energy elicited by the use of attention; by attentional acting, we produce conscious experiences in the form of either a constraint or a freedom (to act in general). Finally I will show that the principal means by which variations in the state of nervous energy are used to put things in relation, is that of serving as a basis for the construction of possible orders (such as space and time).

Keywords: Consciousness, sense of self, relations, attention, nervous energy, order

Reading: PDF file

Send your contributions, proposals for collaboration and research projects - in English, possibly in a doc, rtf or pdf file format - to Giorgio Marchetti at info@mind-consciousness-language.com

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