Trying to build up an understanding
. .To formulate a way make sense of this thing called consciousness
Cannot be done by adding together the pieces and
. .the individual facts that we know about the brain
We do not really get anywhere by understanding
. .individual receptors, synapses, and neurons
We can try to use this knowledge to build up a
. .model of neural circuits
And we can try to piece together all the neural circuits
. .that we have thus far discovered
But this does not give us any idea of where consciousness comes from
Receptors, neurons, neural circuits, these are all things
. .that we have in common with all other animals
And if we try to delineate the differences between the brain
. .of a rat, a cat, a dog, a monkey, or an ape
We only come up with quantitative differences,
. .nothing really qualitative to distinguish us
If we want to say that we have a spark of consciousness
Some thing we call self-awareness
. .that supposedly separates us from these animal
We do not find it in something that we have that animals don’t
. . we do not have a structure in our brain that is anything
. .what is different is only the amount of brain we have
. .and differences in the relative sizes of some part of brain to
. .another part, i.e.
. .we have more frontal cortex than the ape
. .but that is just a difference in relative amount
If it is this relative difference that makes us so much different
. .then we come toe to toe, face to face, with something
. . that many of us absolutely refuse to accept
That is, we are merely more conscious, more self aware
Unless we want to propose the preposterous idea that self awareness
. .arises when we cross a threshold amount of, say, frontal cortex,
or hippocampus, or visual cortex, or Broca’s area, or something
And that makes little sense when we consider that people
. .that suffer from organic brain disorders, brain damage
can have large pieces of brain missing, and yet be
. .totally self aware, conscious, and aware.
Trying to build a model of self awareness from the bottom up
. .to me seems to be a hopeless pursuit
. .and maybe not possible
I believe self-awareness and consciousness is an emergent property,
. .the result of recursive circuits, positive and negative feedback loops
. .and organized patterns of energy and energy flow
This ability of the mind to examine itself,
. .and the key to this is language.
I wonder if animals, when they are thinking, have
. .a voice in their head.
Is it the ability of humans to develop very complex systems of
. .language and grammar
is it this particular skill,
. .is it this the thing that enables man to
. .examine himself
. .to know himself,
. .experience himself
I think this is what truly sets us apart
. .from the animals around us
I have no doubt that they have some
. .rudimentary way to talk to themselves
I don’t believe their language is sufficiently
. .complex enough to discuss metaphysics
I believe that if my cat developed
. .a sufficient complex language
she would be able to contemplate herself
Humans developed language because they had the
. .physical ability and the social need, and the intellect
No human could,
. .alone,
. .with no input from anybody else
No human could develop a language complex enough
. .to discuss philosophy with himself, by himself
. .within the span of one lifetime
. .without some training from somebody else
It is language, which is a social creation that
. .is very old, and which
. .has grown up over the course of hundreds of years
. . living not in one person, but in all of us
Language gives us the tools to become self aware
. .and self-conscious
. .and to discuss philosophy,
. .and argue about this very idea
There are only so many ways to say woof woof, or meow meow
