Consciousness Doesn't Exist.

“I believe that ‘consciousness,’ when once it has evaporated to this estate of pure diaphaneity, is on the point of disappearing altogether. It is the name of a nonentity, and has no right to a place among first principles. Those who still cling to it are clinging to a mere echo, the faint rumor left behind by the disappearing ‘soul’ upon the air of philosophy.”

William James (1904)

The word ‘conscious’ is an adjective; or a word or phrase naming an attribute, added to or grammatically related to a noun to modify or describe it. To be conscious is to be awake and aware of one’s surroundings. ‘Consciousness’ is an abstract noun defined as the state of being conscious, or the state or quality of being awake and aware of ones surroundings.

How does one turn an an adjective into a full blown noun? It’s as simple as adding ‘ness’ to the end of the word. The suffix ‘ness’ transforms an attribute of something into a subject, while allowing the word to remain entirely abstract. Is it safe for us to say these abstract nouns exist?

Let’s imagine we have three bowls filled equally with blue paint. In one bowl of blue paint we will add white, another red and the other yellow. After we’ve mixed the paint in each bowl, we find only one of them will contain paint having any ‘blueness,’ despite the fact that all three contain equal amounts of blue paint. This shows that ‘blueness,’ despite being a noun and representing an entity, is still dependent on the adjective ‘blue.’ Adjectives, as we know, can only describe how things appear, and are only attempts to identify and quantify a particular subject.

When I ask someone to show me ‘blueness,’ he could only ever point to things that are blue, not ‘blueness’ itself. When I ask someone to show me consciousness, he can only ever show me things that are conscious, not consciousness itself. If I ask the same of ‘awareness’ or ‘wakefulness’ I would only be shown things that are aware or wakeful. These abstract nouns only represent nonentities.

Exploring the posibilites of abstract nouns and things completely void of any subject or context leads to such strange paradoxical conclusions such as “Consciousness is conscious of itself.” This is the same as saying “Happiness is happy with itself” or “blueness is as blue as itself.” These of course make little to no logical sense.

As the great American psychologist William James concludes, consciousness is “the name of a nonentity, and has no right to a place among first principles.” ‘Consciousness’ exists as an abstract noun—an idea or concept that doesn’t represent anything perceived, anything real, anything concrete or tangible, but merely something imagined.

The next time Deepak Chopra or some YouTube prophet go on ad nauseum about ‘consciousness,’ you can quietly laugh to yourself knowing that these men have been thinking too much about something that doesn’t exist, and too little about the subservience to their own idealism.

Thank you for reading.

i read a poem where the poet referred to a tree as a piece of wood. i quit reading there. just because someone said something that made it through time and ended up with quotations marks around it does not make it wise or anything like that

Meh. Slightly pseudo in my opinion. Or shall we say speculative for want of a better word. I think this message is quite a bold generalization about something none of us know too much about.

Originally posted by TechUnique
Meh. Slightly pseudo in my opinion. Or shall we say speculative for want of a better word. I think this message is quite a bold generalization about something none of us know too much about.

It's actually a more simple generalization than what's out there, but I appreciate the opinion.

reply to post by TheSubversiveOne


If consciousness doesn't exist, then you don't exist. Are you not conscious? The ness suffix means: the state of, or condition of being something e.g., awkwardness = the state of being awkward. Consciousness is a state of being. So if you don't believe in it, suit yourself buddy.

So, you are going to argue semantics here...? Or is this a post debunking the "life after death" concept....? If it's nothing more then wordplay, then maybe another word is in order. If it's debunking the "life after death" concept, then it's a weak argument...

Originally posted by sgspecial19
reply to post by TheSubversiveOne

 

If consciousness doesn't exist, then you don't exist. Are you not conscious? The ness suffix means: the state of, or condition of being something e.g., awkwardness = the state of being awkward. Consciousness is a state of being. So if you don't believe in it, suit yourself buddy.

Yes. I am conscious. I exist, conscious is a word to describe my state of being. Words are marks on paper. Consciousness is an abstract word.

Of course consciousness exists. The mere fact that we can argue over trivial semantics such as this is an act of a conscious mind.

"I think, therefore I am."

Originally posted by 001ggg100
So, you are going to argue semantics here...? Or is this a post debunking the "life after death" concept....? If it's nothing more then wordplay, then maybe another word is in order. If it's debunking the "life after death" concept, then it's a weak argument...

All we have is our words. These are the limits of our mind.

Originally posted by DarkKnight21
Of course consciousness exists. The mere fact that we can argue over trivial semantics such as this is an act of a conscious mind.

"I think, therefore I am."

*looks under the table* Where? It is an abstract word. Your consciousness or soul or life-force or whatever you want to call it is your body. You cannot prove it isn't the body.

reply to post by TheSubversiveOne


The date today is.... 15th July 2012, we have discovered much since 1904, one thing in particular there are no dead certs.

The thread title is presented as a statement of fact, unfortunately fact seems to be somewhat lacking, no wait, there is no fact to substantiate the title within the body of the OP, just the musings of some dude, who I am betting is now long gone.

Yep, I'm not buying it.

Originally posted by DarkKnight21
Of course consciousness exists. The mere fact that we can argue over trivial semantics such as this is an act of a conscious mind.

"I think, therefore I am."

I'm trying to prove that you exist, therefore you think.

reply to post by TheSubversiveOne


...And words are an extremely limited way of expressing our mind...

2nd

Originally posted by solargeddon
reply to post by TheSubversiveOne

 

The date today is.... 15th July 2012, we have discovered much since 1904, one thing in particular there are no dead certs.

The thread title is presented as a statement of fact, unfortunately fact seems to be somewhat lacking, no wait, there is no fact to substantiate the title within the body of the OP, just the musings of some dude, who i am betting is now long gone.

Yep, I'm not buying it.

You haven't disproven anything I've written.

Originally posted by 001ggg100
reply to post by TheSubversiveOne

 

...And words are an extremely limited way of expressing or mind...

2nd

:clap: Well done. Nothing is refuted but you can continue on with your dignity.

Originally posted by TheSubversiveOne

Originally posted by sgspecial19
reply to post by TheSubversiveOne

 

O

Words are marks on paper. Consciousness is an abstract word.

Words are perpetuating frequencies, so reading metaphysical and ancient readings would help raise your consciousness due to the vocabulary and harmony of the word structure. Anyways, if you don't understand the Essenese of consciousness now, you'll figure it out in another lifetime

edit on 15-7-2012 by sgspecial19 because: Typo

reply to post by TheSubversiveOne


You haven't proven anything either

As someone said above, this is word play, or in ATS terms trolling

You have presented the thread as a statement of fact, where fact does not exist.

Fortunately I do exist, and so does my conscious state (consciousness).

I am self aware, able to look at your twisted concept, and make a "conscious" decision to say "Hmmm, this doesn't seem right to me."

Show me the evidence, its just a cop-out to try and turn it around onto me, you made the thread the burden of substantiating your claims lies squarely with you.

Originally posted by solargeddon
reply to post by TheSubversiveOne

 

You haven't proven anything either

As someone said above, this is word play, or in ATS terms trolling

You have presented the thread as a statement of fact, where fact does not exist.

Fortunately I do exist, and so does my conscious state (consciousness).

I am self aware, able to look at your twisted concept, and make a "conscious" decision to say "Hmmm, this doesn't seem right to me."

Show me the evidence, its just a cop-out to try and turn it around onto me, you made the thread the burden of substantiating your claims lies squarely with you.

I was under the impression that anything in the PHILOSOPHY and METAPHYSICS forum is not factual. Try some logic, and see if you can refute what I wrote. This is philosophy.

Originally posted by TheSubversiveOne

Originally posted by DarkKnight21
Of course consciousness exists. The mere fact that we can argue over trivial semantics such as this is an act of a conscious mind.

"I think, therefore I am."

*looks under the table* Where? It is an abstract word. Your consciousness or soul or life-force or whatever you want to call it is your body. You cannot prove it isn't the body.

edit on 15-7-2012 by TheSubversiveOne because: added abstract

Just because it is abstract and intangible does not mean it is not real. You cannot see, smell, feel, taste, or hear "consciousness" itself, but you would not be able to read these five senses in the first place if your own consciousness didn't exist.

Originally posted by sgspecial19

Originally posted by TheSubversiveOne

Originally posted by sgspecial19
reply to post by TheSubversiveOne

 

O

Words are marks on paper. Consciousness is an abstract word.

Words are perpetuating frequencies, so reading metaphysical and ancient readings would help raise your consciousness due to the vocabulary and harmony of the word structure. Anyways, if you don't understand the Essenese of consciousness now, you'll figure it out in another lifetime

edit on 15-7-2012 by sgspecial19 because: Typo

Will I? Oh thank you. Maybe then you'll refute what I've written before condemning it.