Consciousness, perspective, community

Journal article (2014)

Authors

S. Rainey St. Mary’s University
Affiliation
External organisation
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Published Date

2014

Language

English

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Affiliation

External organisation

Abstract

In this paper, the emergence of consciousness is explained in terms of interpretation and community. It draws contrasts between objects and conscious beings in order to show that differences between objects and conscious beings hinge on different types of interpretation. These differences arise from the way interpretation of a given context or scene works. Scenes in which conscious agents are present exhibit interpretive complexities not seen in those comprised solely of objects. Interpretation is further shown to be reliant upon the communicative potentials of a community. The difference consciousness makes is thus grounded in interpretations that rely upon communication communities, or more generally, in an account of points of view. In this way we see the emergence of consciousness is dependent on perspective and community.