<< articles by Albert Low<<back to book page |
printable version |
| This article, will appear in the Journal World Futures. It is an updated and considerably enlarged version of another article which was published in the Encyclopedia of Life Support Sciences. The article gives the gist of the book Creating Consciousness that I wrote and which was published by White Cloud Press. A French version was published under the title of Créer la Conscience by éditions relier of France. My reason for writing the book and the articles is to offer a viable alternative to the materialist/mechanist way of thought which is so prevalent in the West at this time. |
|
What is consciousness and has it evolved?(an article by Albert Low LLD) |
|
Abstract Research into consciousness has now become respectable, and much has been written about it. Is consciousness the exclusive property of human beings, or can it be found also in animals? Can machines become conscious? Is consciousness an illusion, and are all mental states ultimately reducible to the movement of molecules? If consciousness is other than matter, what connection does it have with matter? These and others like them are now serious scientific questions in the West. This article discusses consciousness within the frame of three assertions: Consciousness has evolved from earlier states of awareness to be found in lower forms of life. The current scientific method is too restrictive for the study of conscience and its evolution. In particular classical logic leads scientists to ignore or reject consciousness as a legitimate field of study. Mind and matter, generalized as knowing and being, have equal status. |
|
In order to read the rest of the article please download a pdf version by clicking here .Clicking on this link will automatically launch the Adobe Reader plug-in if it's installed in your browser. It it's not installed and you get an error when you click on the link, you'll need to go to the Adobe site to download Reader. The Adobe Reader plug-in is a free download and is available at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html |
|
<< articles by Albert Low<<back to the book page |
printable version |