Consciousness I

Ok, here's a little thought experiment. There'll be more in this "series," but I haven't written them yet so I won't promise any specific topics. Piece starts here.

This is really the true question of existence. Consciousness (I do not believe I am exaggerating) is the most important single thing in the universe. It is more important than religion, politics, society, truth, meaning, and even life; this is because it is what makes all of these. Without consciousness, nothing else matters because there is nothing else. Furthermore, it is not consciousness but our state of consciousness that is so important. It is not the empty consciousness of an insect or the wasted consciousness of the comatose. It is the reasoning, abstract-thinking, and, most importantly, self-aware consciousness. To illustrate what I mean with all this grandiosity, I will sketch a few thought experiments to explain.

1. The Tiger’s consciousness.

To understand what I am saying throughout the rest of this essay, it is important to imagine something. Let us plot on a graph the level of intelligence of organisms, from bacteria on through humans. Though it is not measurable, I would argue that the level of happiness (average, of course) would peak around the higher-level animals (those that are self-aware but do not possess abstract thinking) and decline with humans, creating a bit of an off-center bell curve. The reasoning for this I will explain below.

Let us compare a tiger and a human. Given the choice, I would have to say I would rather be a tiger than a human. The reasoning for this can be summed up in a few short sentences, but requires much more to fully explain.

Basically, the idea is that a human’s combination of abstract thinking and self-awareness will cause great anguish. Self-awareness is a wonderful thing, to be sure; that is why animals with it I consider to be the highest level of happiness achievable. One is able to distinguish oneself from that around them, and is able to therefore experience emotions. Before one begins arguing about instincts, think about a cat sitting on its owner’s lap or an panther lying in the sun; are those instincts? They are pleasurable activities that the animal does solely for enjoyment; no gain can be had by it. I can give examples of human behavior, but everyone can certainly think of some on their own and no one accuses people of acting solely on instincts, so I need not defend anything. Abstract thinking, however, is something that only humans can do. To plan in advance, to imagine, to wish, to fear the future; all those are actions of the abstract. Fine enough on its own, but dangerous when combined with self-consciousness. Because then, it is not “I lay in the sun” or “He will die someday” but rather “I will die someday.” An animal is surrounded by death, but the thought of its own mortality never comes into its mind. An animal does not think it will live forever and it does not think it will die one day; it gives no thought to it’s own future because it does not possess that ability.

Now think of how many times you have worried over something that may happen to you in the future. Worrying does not ever make the situation better; if the event will happen (and with death, it will) it will happen regardless of whether you are aware that it will. Planning out in advance does not truly help one much, because there is much that we do not control in our lives and therefore we are not in control of the outcome. This is a basic tenant of both religious fatalism and secular modernism. And I am not talking about occasional thoughts, for most of everything that causes one to feel fear is an abstract event. It of course differs from person to person, with some being able to cope better with the future and others being veritably debilitated by it.

And now we have the tiger. It has no fear of death because it does not know death in relation to itself. To quote Schopenhauer:

But all this contributes to increase the measure of suffering in human life out of all proportion to its pleasures; and the pains of life are made much worse for man by the fact that death is something very real to him. The brute flies from death instinctively without really knowing what it is, and therefore without ever contemplating it in the way natural to a man, who has this prospect always before his eyes.

One might argue that if one were a tiger, they would be missing out on all the greatness of human existence: music, literature, language, etc. etc. But if one were a tiger, one would not know that it was missing out on something. My cat does not sit around while I listen to an album and think, “Oh, if only I were human I could appreciate these noises!” One cannot miss or mourn what one has never known. And, furthermore, how do we know that tigers do not appreciate things that we as humans do not? The saying “simple pleasures for a simple mind” applies here, I think.

If one were a tiger, one would live a life devoid of fear of the future, a hedonistic life that focuses only on the self in the here and now. When one dies, it is without fear of death and then one is dead and no longer has any fear of anything.

This is quite long. I do apologize. This, in case you couldn’t tell, was a pre-packaged piece saved for when I had nothing else to write. I also apologize for the horrendous formatting issues I think there are going to be. Word does not seem to be very HTML-friendly.