The Problem of Self-Correlation of Consciousness

Abstract

What is the origin of the uppermost capacity of consciousness, its capacity of self-correlation which is proper of man alone? How the higher-level consciousness comes to be and how it is related to the deeper consciousness? Why, if the capacity of deeper consciousness is inherent in him, does the man at some point find himself separated from it by the barrier of the Self and, as a result, loses his ability of a direct introspection into what is happening in others’ minds as if occurring within himself? Starting from these questions, the paper offers a new model of understanding of the nature of this self-correlative capacity of consciousness. The method primarily used is that of “flipping” the problem: one begins not by explaining how from the primitive forms of rudimentary sensitivity there emerges a higherlevel consciousness which only achieves its present form through evolution, but rather by attempting to understand how, when and why the more fundamental capacity of consciousness, which comes perhaps closer to perfection than the one we know from experience as our ego-consciousness, undergoes the various changes while acquiring all the familiar appearances, from fairly sophisticated to quite primitive ones.