As with the other responses...
... it's genuine. It's a nice little demonstration of the difference between awareness and consciousness, or - to steal and misuse a theme from Sartre - the difference between consciousness and "consciousness (of) consciousness. "Seeing" usually implies knowing-that-you're-seeing; in this case it doesn't. But the sight is still there.
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Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Wed 28 Jan 2009, 11:47,
Reply)
That's a pretty subtle difference
isn't it pretty hard to differentiate (even sematically) between conciousness and awareness?
Surely you can't have one without the other, e.g. if unconscious, you're not aware, and vice versa...
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DrPrunesquallor is determined to post more as of, Wed 28 Jan 2009, 12:08,
Reply)
Not all that hard
I'd've thought that this story gives a fairly good example of the difference. He's "aware" of the world around him - he just isn't conscious of that awareness.
Consciousness, we might want to say, implies awareness; but the relationship isn't reciprocal.
On the other hand, I may be getting way out of my depth here. "Mind and world" philosophy really isn't my thing: I always drift off during those papers...
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Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Wed 28 Jan 2009, 12:17,
Reply)