Running head: MELIORATIVE MIND  

Copyright

By

Damon Leo Hansen, AAS, BA

Damon.l.hansen@gmail.com

http://lnkd.in/KNesed

2013, June

MELIORATIVE MIND 2

The Masters of Arts in Psychology in the Integrative Studies Program

Certifies that this is the approved version of the following thesis:

On the Innate Meliorative Potential of the Mind

A Positivistic and Cross-disciplinary Look at Human Consciousness

Committee:

____________________

Ned Farley, PhD

____________________

Randy Morris, PhD

___________________

Charles Jeffreys, MA

MELIORATIVE MIND 3

On the Innate Meliorative Potential of the Human Mind:

A Positivistic and Cross-disciplinary Look at Consciousness

By

Damon Leo Hansen, AAS, BA

Thesis

Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the

School of Applied Psychology, Counseling and Family Therapy

in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements

for the degree of

Master’s of Arts

Antioch University Seattle

June 2013

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DEDICATION

Dedicated to the memory of Eric Thomas Winges whose 12

years of friendship during my misanthropic, maladjusted and

dysfunctional youth is the only thing that allowed me to survive

that period. May the recommendations for understanding and

healing the mind discussed herein prevent future lives from

being so tragically lost.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My growth and metamorphosis from wayward youth to future doctoral candidate would

not have been possible without the wisdom and mentorship of the amazing people that make my

life worth living. First to my beautiful and endlessly supportive husband, Cade Micah Cannon,

Ph.C for his unwavering support. My love, you remain the best thing that has ever happened to

me in my life. I also extend deep appreciation and thanks to Kirk Robbins, JD who took me into

his home, mentored me and allowed me to evolve from naïve boy to functional man during my

undergraduate years. I also recognize my core advisor from my time here in the B.A. department,

evaluator of my graduate independent studies and useful critic of my ability to construct cogent

arguments, Ormond Smythe Ed.D. Thanks also go to Ned Farley, Ph.D for his editorial expertise,

kindness and patience. I also extend many heart felt kudos and acknowledgements to my

supervisor, friend and research consultant Beverly Stuart, MLIS. I shall remain forever indebted

and maintain my collegial bond to my friends in the Antioch community!

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ABSTRACT

Within this thesis the author first notes the depth and breadth of perspectives that exist

across literature regarding the various problematics in the field of consciousness studies. The

unimodal and insular nature of disciplines is noted. Drawing upon the work of Newell on the

sematic differences between inter-, trans-, pluri- and cross-disciplinarity to build an

epistemological framework, the conclusions from Heideggerian existentialism, property dualism

and positivisitic neuroscience are juxtaposed to paint a portrait of consciousness that supports its

capacities for helping the human vessel in which it is housed achieve personal growth and

contentment. The methods each of the three disciplines utilized with respect to knowledge

production are discussed first to create a standardized scaffold. Methods of textual analysis and

evaluation of premises are used to justify the use of a unique version of property dualism as

opposed to the variety of other perspectives in philosophy of mind.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE: PRACTICAL APPLICATION PROJECT SCOPE AND

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS REGARDING INTELLECTUAL

UNDERPINNINGS………………………………………………………………………

Etiology, Guiding Queries and Relevance ……………………………..10

Psychological Theoretical Perspective………………………………….14

Orientation to Scope of Literature Review……………………………..15

Philosophy of Mind…………………………………………….17

Intentionality……………………………………………………………19

Polemical Alignment and Contribution………………………………...22

CHAPTER TWO: CRITICAL LITERATURE REVIEW …………………….24

Introduction…………………………………………………………….25

Methodology and Selection Criteria……………………………………25

Presentation and Critique of Literature…………………………………27

Philosophy of Mind…………………………………………………….27

Epistemology and Hermeneutics……………………………………….40

Existential Theory………………………………………………………43

Conclusions, Themes and Unifying Comments………………………..44

CHAPTER THREE: PRACTICAL APPLICATION PROJECT THESIS:

Preface………………………………………………………………….49

On the Rationale for Cross-disciplinarity ……………………………..50

Philosophical disciplinary methodologies……………………..57

Existential disciplinary methodologies………………………...65

Neuroscience’s disciplinary methodologies…………………...72

Cross-disciplinary standards for knowledge production. ………75

The Conceptual Spectrum of Definitions………………………………77

Varieties of philosophically dualistic definitions………………79

Varieties of materialistic substance monistic definitions………90

Substance Monistic Property Dualism…………………………………94

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An Interdisciplinary Explication of Existential Theory…………………..96

Synthetic Reverie: On Paradigms of Mind and Resolution of Crises…...112

Cross-disciplinary Reflections: Philosophy Trumps Dread………………113

Wired for Happiness: Neurological Correlates and Definitions…………115

Neuro-Existential Resolution and Transformations of Consciousness…..124

CHAPTER FOUR: SUMMARY AND EVALUATION………………………..127

REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………..134

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CHAPTER ONE:

PRACTICAL APPLICATION PROJECT

SCOPE AND

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

REGARDING INTELLECTUAL

UNDERPINNINGS

Fig. 1 Leon Golub (1959). Head XXXII

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Etiology, Guiding Queries and Relevance

The structure of the intellectual curiosity that is the basis for my interest in studying

consciousness has undergone a tremendous amount of metamorphosis from its genesis when I

first proposed the content areas to its current form. This reflective and analytical chapter serves

to outline the evolution of my interest in consciousness studies, the contribution to society and

humanity this field of study has to offer, the primary psychological theory that shall be the

primary lens that guides my work, and finally a preliminary review of the literature to be

included in my Application Project.

Etiology of interest

My rationale for selecting this topic is largely rooted in challenges I have experienced

across my life in achieving a structure of consciousness whose patterns of movement are

conducive to the promotion of emotional stability and happiness. I also spoke of my atheistic

temperament, intellectual curiosity and the critical questioning mind I have acquired owing to a

mother who rather than utilizing a parenting style of indoctrination allowed me to be free to think

for myself.

The emergence of my interest in the field of consciousness studies arose from my need to

understand the mind as a powerful instrument with strong properties of elasticity and potential

for growth. The sociological and psychosexual influences on my consciousness from a very early

age were quite antagonistic in nature. Abuse, neglect, instability -- these qualities were

commonplace during my formative years and promoted the development of a maladjusted mind

with erratic and unpredictable movements. Malleability of mind, unfortunately, allows for

negative programming to instill within us the potential to live our lives in a destructive way in an

attempt to heal these problems. There is an element of selfishness and desperate longing to

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facilitate personal and intellectual growth that drives my unwavering determination to go down

this academic path. The intentionally driven plasticity that is an inherent property of the human

mind, then, and its capacity to allow the defeat any cognitive pattern that precedes

psychopathology is the primary area of focus of this thesis. Evidence of this inherent property

I’ve seen in my own mind anecdotally drives my longing and desire to empirically research,

explore and defend this perspective on what the mind is capable of.

Social relevance

I have skillfully used many principles I learned about the mind in this work to inform the

way in which I navigate the other various roles I play in my life. The relevance of this

interdisciplinary thesis and capstone community presentation on consciousness is far-reaching

and applicable to individuals from all rungs of the socioeconomic hierarchy. The primary reason

for the broad applicability and relevance of this area to people from all walks of life is that

understanding our minds and its potential is directly correlated with greater fulfillment of life.

Although some of the esoteric intellectual areas within the field are not necessarily of great

interest to all, understanding the psyche via contemplation of the basic properties of

consciousness has the potential to cultivate positive human transformations. The qualitative

experience of being human invariably involves certain universal experiences including at the

most basic and primordial level the biological need to be free from pain and suffering and at a

higher level the need to assert our individuality in the world, become socially integrated, and

allowing the emergence of the true self. Awareness of mortality and the need to leave a mark or

legacy in subsequent generations is an additional human universal that becomes a more

prominent element of consciousness as we pass through life stages, milestones and reach our

twilight years. All of these human experiences are processed in the conscious mind and hence the

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explication of matters of substance reduction and existential crises are of paramount importance

for anyone cognitively intact enough to have critical, self-reflective thoughts ruminating within

the mind.

Foundational questions

The core intent behind attempts at philosophical definition is to address the problem of

substance reduction and free will; the core intent behind neurologic definition is to delineate the

functionality of biological structures and their correlates in conscious experience; the core intent

of existential psychology is to address the modalities via which the psyche experiences and

addresses the optimal way to make our limited existence meaningful and defeat fears related to

our mortality. To a varying degree, these definitions provide a useful framework for

understanding our inner mental life, including our subjective experiences. The extent to which

each of these fields is able to do that is a guiding question that shall underlie the way this work is

structured.

The multimodal approach to conceptual encapsulation that I will utilize in my work will

provide an overview of competing definitions of consciousness in literature and a case for why

my proposed definition has intellectual merit. Wedding these fields in an intelligent way,

therefore, requires that I address the neural correlates of experience – neurophilosophy,

neuropsychological theories of the psyche and the like. Individual questions of these respective

disciplines as well as what happens upon their combination is intelligently examined in my work.

The self is composed of stories we continuously tell ourselves about our lives and the

self-judgments we attach to those stories. Similarly, upon reaching the point in which my own

definition is asserted, I will argue that consciousness is the basic patterns of movement of our

inner socio-emotional-intellectual apparatus. It is the processing of our intero and exteroceptive

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data which has visual, auditory, tactile and other sensory forms (Blackmore, 2012). To the extent

that we understand the degree of automaticity of these rich inner movements we understand

ourselves and can facilitate personal transformations. My need to metamorphose into a higher

state of being and the sense of satisfaction that follows my effectiveness as an uncle, husband,

educator, and son in promoting those transformations in the people I encounter in the social

system in which I am situated is the primary reason for my interest in this field.

Because consciousness is a phenomenon that is far too complex to describe adequately

using a unimodal approach, I will include literature that discusses the methods for

interdisciplinary work. William Newell’s Interdisciplinary: Essays from the Literature shall

inform the manner in which I will merge and synthesize to create a cohesive and comprehensive

picture of consciousness. The intent behind using an approach that draws upon the disciplines I

have outlined is to understand consciousness as completely and comprehensively as possible.

Philosophy provides guidance about the basic material substance of which the mind is

composed but is ill equipped to speak broadly and conceptually about the individual functional

units of the psyche and the way in which these units interact. Existential theory points to our

deepest inner longings, the neglect of which leads to an underlying sense of anxiety and

negatively influences the contents of the psyche. Neuroscience provides a sense of biological

functionality and the dry deterministic action of neurotransmitters, encoding and carrying out of

genetic instructions but also falls short in providing any guidance for understanding lived human

experience. My section on interdisciplinary shall be foundational and speak to the methodology

via which I shall integrate, synthesize and speak to the shortcomings and useful wedding of these

lines of inquiry.

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With these intersections of the various academic frameworks that attempt to define

consciousness in mind, the most indispensable query that drives this work is as follows: how do

the disciplines that are called upon to define consciousness complement each other in order to

paint a picture of the mind that upholds the axiom that we are innately driven towards wholeness.

That is to say, how does a characterization of the neural correlates that speak to the possibility of

intentionally driven neurogenesis and plasticity inform the philosophical debate of intentionality?

And similarly, how does an argument for the primacy and power of mental properties inform the

way in which existential theory characterizes our experience of the anxiety and dread that stems

from our mortality? The irrefutable primacy of these questions above those that have little use

beyond the academic elite will become increasing self-evident in subsequent chapters. These

sorts of intersecting threads of argumentation and definition that complement each other to create

a picture of consciousness that emphasizes its meliorative or healing potential. Stated another

way for clarity, the driving queries in this work are as follows:

• How does one tap into our natural potential for construction of ontological

security by directing our consciousness in a manner that promotes healing?

• How do the varieties of arguments regarding the substance to which mind reduces

inform the core presupposition about reality that generates existential anxiety?

• How can models of conscious and subconscious neural circuitry inform our

natural capacity for happiness?

Psychological Theoretical Perspective

Nowhere was the problematic modern condition more precisely embodied than in the

phenomenon of existentialism...reflecting a pervasive spiritual crisis in modern culture.

The anguish and alienation of twentieth-century life were brought to full articulation as

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the existentialist addressed the most fundamental, naked concerns of human existence --

suffering and death, loneliness and dread, guilt, conflict, spiritual emptiness and

ontological insecurity, the void of absolute values or universal contexts… the frailty of

human reason, the tragic impasse of the human condition...man was condemned to be

free...he faced the necessity of choice and thus knew the continual burden of error.

(Tarnas, 1991, pp. 388–389)

Our capacity to reflect deeply and critically on our fragility, the way in which we direct

our lives, the sequellae of the cessation of functioning of our biological hearts and brains and

other sorts of deep concerns justifies the unique qualities of consciousness that supervene upon

determinism. Tarnas extends this poignant characterization of the human experience to the vast

and expansive bounds of the cosmos and supports a spiritual, collective mind perspective you’ll

not find any support for in this work; however, the work of Heidegger, Sartre and to a lesser

extent other existential thinkers will be the basis for this chapter. One primary questions this

chapter will seek to answer includes: in what way does an existential theory define that basic

constituents and movements of consciousness?

Themes in existential literature

Literary works in existential theory span the contributions of the major historical writers

in the field including Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre and Heidegger. Across these major

contributors to existential thought, there is a tremendous amount of variability in the reliance on

the Judeo Christian tradition use of existentialism to combat nihilistic negation (Crowell, 2012;

Sartre, 1957). The former is attributed to Kierkegaard and the latter to Nietzsche. There is a

divide in existential literature between the theistic and the atheistic. Some writers speak of the

necessity of “spiritualizing” existential theory via the reliance on mystical frames of reference

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(Schneider, 2012). Others speak of the need to justify suffering by denying metaphysical truths

(Boris, 2011). Purposeful selection for literature that aligns with my atheistic temperament shall

be utilized in this section of my project. The synthesis of existential philosophy and psychology

is performed in literature using the foundational works of Kierkegaard and Heidegger. The

understanding of the self and psyche put forth by this viewpoint puts a large degree of emphasis

on the core motivational force within the self to grapple with the demons within and reach a

place o f wholeness and authenticity (May & Schneider, 2007).

Orientation to Scope of Literature Review

The various competing voices and perspectives in the various fields that intersect

consciousness studies as a discipline are reviewed here. Herein I’ve introduced some of the very

basic key concepts and definitions that are necessary to understand before one dives into the

more dense substance of this work. It is important to note the necessity of a multiplicity of

concepts and ideas that are, as subsequent content and argumentation will reveal, not

amalgamated in an arbitrary fashion but rather are purposefully selected in order to aid in my

intention to comprehensively define consciousness in a manner that affirms its intrinsic aptitude

to create emotionally positive states.

The breakdown of telomeres, the protective ends of DNA strands results in mis-

transcription and contribute to the onset of cancers and hence are the neurobiological origin of

mortality, a concept that is at the heart of the rationale for the existential anxieties and fears that

are a fundamental aspect of our conscious experience. Hence neuroscience, philosophy, and

existential theory have much to contribute to each other. The extent to which we can act and be

in the world is a core ontological concern of both existential theory and ruminations on

intentionality. These sorts of common threads are a feature across the literature. Making a strong

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case for these connections by creating a complementary web of relationships among these ideas

will contribute something new and useful to humanity.

Consequently I will organize this project by providing first compartmentalize, individual

definitions across the sections of literature I review then upon analysis and assertion of my own

convictions will use my best cognitive knitting needles to thread a sophisticated, multicolored

quilt which defines consciousness is a manner that is accurate, accessible and useful. My bias

towards a framework that thinks of us as naturally programmed to achieve contentment in our

lifetimes and evolve along cognitive, ethical, spiritual and personal realms via the purposeful

change of our consciousness will be argued. The perspective that exists in literature and informs

our understanding of to what degree we can use the intentions of our mental properties to

supervene over physical laws and encourage Hebbian reconfiguration of our neural circuits shall

out outlined and presented in a useful manner.

Philosophy of mind

Property dualism is a philosophical position that posits that consciousness is a

phenomenon that cannot be adequately encapsulated in the discourse of neuroscience and

behaviorism (MacPherson, 2006; White, 2007; Zimmerman, 2010). There are a variety of

subsets of this frame of philosophy of mind, but what they share is the assertion that

consciousness is neither identical to nor reducible to physical properties while simultaneously

being instantiated or emitted from those physical properties (van Gulick, 2011). This position is

substance monistic in the sense that is does not assert that mental states are of a different

category of fundamental stuff of the universe; however, property dualism does assert that

conscious, phenomenal qualia have properties that extend beyond the laws such as

thermodynamics, exchange of chemical energy, conservation of matter and other fundamental

MELIORATIVE MIND 18

physical, chemical and subatomic properties of the substances and particles of the universe.

Property dualism asserts that consciousness arises from the physical while simultaneously having

an autonomous, intentional existence separate from the deterministic laws that direct the carrying

out of genetic instructions on the cellular level. To think, emote and carry out intentions in the

world gives consciousness a property that is of a separate category than molecules, proteins and

robotic phagocytes. However, the mind is wholly dependent upon and disappears upon the

development of disease states or other biological alterations in the brain. What sort of form

thought can take and whether its processes are entirely embodied and explainable as linguistic or

mathematical phenomena is the subject of much literary speculation (Dennett, 1991; Lakoff,

1999; Ryle, 1949; Tallis, 1991). This section of my inquiry shall serve the following primary

purposes and answer the following questions: (1) what concerns of definition, function and

ability make consciousness processes special and categorically different from physical

properties? (2) What are the phenomenal and experiential aspects of consciousness?

Writings in this area span the competing schools of thought that have been in existence

since the time of Decartes. Pro-physicalist argumentation is very common and addresses the

problematics of the knowledge argument, conceivability argument and explanatory gap (Kim,

2005; Pereboom, 2011). Panpsychism, or the attribution of non- or metaphysical psychic

attributes to pieces of the universe and biological entities in the ecosystem, is the competing

camp and is a repeating theme in the scholarly annals of philosophy (Karman, 2012; Seager,

2012).

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Intentionality

Behavioral reductionism, according to one of the pioneers in the field of behaviorism,

B.F. Skinner (1974), posits that all of our actions are the deterministic output as the result of

some sensory input. All thoughts that precede action are entirely predictable. Deliberation,

purposeful rational judgment and free will are refuted via the behaviorist paradigm. The

prevailing wisdom of Daniel Dennett (1991) and his empiricist, materialist neurological

reductionism makes a similar assertion, positing that our actions are the result of the

deterministic relationship between the carrying out of genetic instructions, neuronal firings and

the thoughts that are produced by those firings. Hence, intentionality1 is a hotly contested issue

will be given attention. Searle (1998) provides a definition and much discourse exists in

philosophical literature that will serve as the foundational source material for this section. He

notes that it is a “general term for all the various forms by which the mind can be direct at, or be

about, or of, objects and states of affairs in the world” (p. 112). Intentionality is a subset of the

various ways in which consciousness is philosophically defined; hence in the literature review on

definitions, the extent to which intentionality is accepted shall be included.

Epistemology and hermeneutics

During the point at which I insert myself and argue for my own definition, I shall include

a discussion of the core manner in which I construct and accept knowledge. In making a case for

the definition I find most acceptable, I must insert the epistemological framework that underlies

1 Etymological note: the pre-Searle root of the term intentionality is the Latio intentio or intendere meaning “to stretch forth”. Thomas Aquinus and the other scholastics promoted the idea that the intellect has a potential during act of cognition to stretch for to the objects and draw them into itself, as it were. This position posits the actual existence of the real world out there and the purposeful drawing into the psyche elements of that world. For Brentano, this is about a complex rapport we have with the indwelling mental correlate of objects in the world (Misiak & Sexton, 1973).

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such a definition. Epistemological inquiry seeks to examine “nature and scope of knowledge and

rational belief” and operates by “formulating and assessing arguments for skeptical conclusions

that we do not have knowledge of various kinds”. This field is also interested in the “evaluation

of thought processes and the relationship of science to philosophy” (Conne. & Feldman, 2005, p.

270).

The purpose of the lines of inquiry and discourse that happens in epistemology is to

examine three conditions: truth, belief and justification. Knowledge is justified if in the event

what is known has to be a fact and thus true. The person has to regard it as true and belief it, and

the person must have an adequate basis for believing it or have sufficient justification for

believing it. Other lines of argument stipulate that for us to have knowledge, the justification that

is proposed must be undefeated – that is to say, there is no truth that can be imagined or proposed

that would discount or refute a piece of knowledge. Other lines of argument propose that the

rationale for justification be conclusive. That is to say, the quintessence of epistemology is to

explicate, argue and examine the foundational premises that underlie the conditions under which

we accept a proposition as true.

With respect to consciousness studies as a field, therefore, epistemology is concerned

with the criteria by which we classify our experience of a thought as material or extra-material

and how go about knowing, accessing and classifying our conscious states. I must, therefore,

discuss the lens through which the data of consciousness are accepted and interpreted as true and

valid. Throughout this thesis, the frame I use to define consciousness is rooted in my own

epistemological presuppositions. It is imperative that discussion in this regard be included.

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Neurologizing

In this section I will concern myself largely with the anatomic areas and regions of the

brain involved in the receipt and processing of sensory data. The cascade from the change of the

retinal molecule in the cornea to processing in the higher regions of the brain will be the focus of

this section. The neurological etiology of thought and intention are also concerns that will be

addressed in this section. A neurological definition is inclusive of the pieces of our biological

apparatus that correlate with and give rise to consciousness.

Neuroscientific literature is largely concerned with the biological functionality of the

various regions of the brain and the physiological manner in which processing and perception of

sensory data occurs (Laureys & Tononi, 2009). Much literary attention is paid on the

differentiation between core or implicit and extended, or explicit consciousness. Our ability to

intentionally access and change our neuronal physiology and hence our cognition is also of great

interest to scientists and neurophilosophers (Block, 2007). Much interest is given to the nature in

which the thalamo-cortical system gives rise to our conscious states (Block, 2007; Min, 2010;

Seth, Suzuki & Critchley, 2012; Zeki, 2003). Broadcast and conscious experience of incoming

sensory data via our auditory, visual, olfactory, tactile and gustatory biological systems is also a

very common theme in neurobiological literature. This broadcast has been explained using the

oft studied “global workspace model” (Conner & Shanahan, 2010; Dahaene & Kouider, 2007;

Wallace, 2005).

Polemical Alignment and Contribution

Given the above noted scope of this thesis and knowledge gaps in current discourse

relative to examining the relationship between consciousness, existential thought, neuroscience

and the version of property dualism I will explicate, the core assertions I will make require

MELIORATIVE MIND 22

clarification. To speak of the aforementioned disciplines as inadequate and shortsighted in

addressing questions of definition and potentiality that are core to the examination of

consciousness I must outline the purpose of these fields and the criteria and methods by which

they produce knowledge. In this way I will contribute a new standardized cross-disciplinary

framework for the examination of the mind. Having done that, by process of elimination of

poorly constructed arguments I will defend a version of property dualism that posits that

consciousness is emergent from, intimately linked to, but simultaneously supervenient to the

biological machinery from which it arises. Mental properties, I will argue, are clearly and

distinctly separate from physical properties in the sense that they have the irrefutable and

undeniable wherewithal to impose bidirectional causality upon biological processes such as

DNA transcription, synaptic vesicular release and reuptake of neurotransmitters, signal

propagation and other neurobiological physical events. Having defended the distinctness and

primacy of the mental, I will proceed to delineate the cross-disciplinary use of this

characterization of the mental. This will be done by examining how such a framework regarding

the power of intention informs our natural inner capacity for conquering the demons within,

coming into Being and ridding ourselves of existential dread, anxiety, and the urgency to be in an

ingenuous manner. The assertions relative to neurological bidirectional causality necessitate

explication of the proposed mechanism whereby collateral axons and other neuroplastic changes

are encouraged. Via explication of the proposed subjective correlate of brain nuclei and neuronal

processes I will support the undeniable and natural capacity inherent in our circuitry to

intentionally drive biological processes and encourage neuroplastic changes that facilitate the

emergence of resolution of existential fear.

MELIORATIVE MIND 23

CHAPTER TWO: CRITICAL LITERATURE REVIEW

Consciousness is a word worn smooth by a million tongues. Depending upon the figure of speech

chosen it is a state of Being, a substance, a process, a place, an epiphenomenon, an emergent

aspect of matter, or the only true reality. Maybe we should ban the word for a decade or two

until we can develop more precise terms for the several uses which ‘consciousness’ now

obscures. (Miller 1962, p 40)

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Miller’s observation on the convoluted nature of consciousness discourse above guided

the selection of key words and search terms I used in my inquiries in the scholarly annals of

neuroscience, existential psychology, and philosophy of mind. It is also necessary here to

introduce several of the key concepts, competing schools of thought and terminology that are an

integral part of understanding the field of consciousness studies. This chapter, therefore, will

serve to elucidate the central themes, ideas and ideologically divergent schools of thought that

approach the question of how to provide an optimally useful frame for understanding the mind.

The perennial questions about consciousness and the contextual correlate of those questions in

the lived human experiences are included under each primary subject heading in this review.

Wherein possible, a complete an accurate characterization of the argument for a particular

position is included.

Methodology and selection criteria

I used my access to several different databases including ProQuest thesis and dissertation

archive, OHIOlink and ISI Web of knowledge. I reviewed the following journals (not an

exhaustive list), including only articles that were peer-reviewed, rigorous and published within

the last 10 years:

• Journal of Consciousness Studies: controversies in the science and humanities

• Consciousness and Emotion

• Consciousness and Cognition

• Archives of Neurology

• Philosophical Explorations: An International Journal for the Philosophy of Mind and Action

• Journal of the Society of Existential Analysis

MELIORATIVE MIND 25

• Sartre Studies International Journal: An International Journal of Existentialism and

Contemporary Culture

• Other relevant publications from PSYCHinfo

The primary purpose of this section is to delineate the basic qualitative elements of the

prevailing viewpoints. Other selection criteria included the utilization of a committee appropriate

for the line of study, high quality sources organized logically in text, a clear and well defined

purpose or intent behind the graduate students work and some concluding remarks that note the

necessity and nature of future scholarship and research. Hegemonic viewpoints are outlined in

detail as a foundational starting point for future commentary.

Key paired search terms included “positivistic”, “existential”, “consciousness”; “property

dualism”, “intentionality”, “consciousness”, “happiness” and applicable combinations thereof.

I ought to also note the element of purposeful selection that guided the compilation,

summary and critique of literature that appears in this chapter. It is the intention of the author to

provide support and justification of a conception of consciousness that is positivistic in the sense

that it points a picture of the capabilities and intrinsic aptitudes of the mind to engage in thinking

that supports human’s natural striving for fulfillment and happiness. Hence existential literature

that speaks highly of human freedom and capacity for making meaning out of meaninglessness

was preferred. Similarly, neuroscientific literature that speaks of the circuits and biology of

happiness was preferred over less useful data on the biology that precedes psychopathologic

states of consciousness. In subsequent sections in which my polemic is inserted, I will speak of

the way in which a position or standpoint in one area supports the positive frame I am defending.

The selective process I used to seek out and collect literature that speaks of consciousness

in a positive light and allows for the useful intermingling of frameworks provided a number of

MELIORATIVE MIND 26

methodological challenges. The pursuit and discovery of individual, compartmentalized data in

each academic discipline was easy; however, my primary goal was to obviate the necessity of

fear of death via envisioning the enmeshment of fields. This sort of interdisciplinary

consciousness literature is few and far between. The discourse around complementing one

discipline with another was very difficult to come by. The journals of philosophy are replete with

discussions of panpsychism or the idea that mind-like properties exist at lower organismic levels;

however intersection of these arguments with navigation of existential paradoxes is not readily

available. With those limitations in mind, I proceed by explicating key terms and concepts for

consideration. The complementary nature of these schools of thought has the potential to be

transformative at both the individual and societal level.

Presentation and Critique of the Literature

Philosophy of mind

It is beyond the scope of a project such as this to provide anything close to a

comprehensive review of the opposing ways in which the split between the physical and the

mental realms has been discussed by Descartes, Ryle, Dennett, Chalmers and a host of other

theorist and thinkers over the several hundred years. However, it is necessary to be aware of the

basic problems in this field. Additionally, for my purposes it is necessary to envision what lines

can be useful or complementary in a cross-disciplinary project. Questions about the mind and its

proper place in the world are rooted in the same questions about the origin of the universe. Core

to this line of inquiry is the question of substance – that is to say: in this line in inquiry we hope

to learn of the basic sort of stuff the universe is composed of (Blackmore, 2012). The oft quoted

assertion in response to this line of thought postulates that “according to the materialists, we can

account for every mental phenomena using the same physical principles, laws, and raw materials

MELIORATIVE MIND 27

that suffice to explain radioactivity, continental drift, photosynthesis, reproduction, nutrition and

growth” (Dennett, 1991, p. 33). The rigid epistemic standard and methods of hypothesizing,

observation with the senses, documentation and then repeating experimental conditions begs the

question: is this model the only valid way to access the physical substance of the world? The

stuff of the periodic table is the only sort of stuff there fundamentally is in the universe. The

opposing viewpoint far on the other end of the spectrum appeals to the immutable and irrefutable

lightness of sentience. It sees mental properties as fundamentally apart from the neurochemicals

that give rise to our thought processes. There is an insensible element to the universe from which

our mind arises and unto which we shall return after our brief journey on this earth in our

corporeal body. Our rich inner lives and personal interpretation of the world is an aspect of the

human experience that ought not be minimized by trumping our free will with deterministic

materialism (Blakemore, 2012). This view on the polar opposite spectrum holds that it is

necessary to think of consciousness as a “nonorganismic, nonspatial, spiritual structure” that

ought not be “biologized” (Akerma, 2008, p. 64.)

There is, naturally a spectrum in literature across the strict materialistic account of the

mental and the Cartesian split between mental events and physical events. Various midpoints and

accounts of the causal or acausal interaction between the two exist. The characteristics of these

theories I shall now expound at length. Between the materialisms of the scientistic Dan Dennett

lies variable incarnations of the dualism of Descartes. For the purpose of this exercise,

naturalistic dualism, quantum dualist interactionism and moderate materialism will be the focus;

possible ways in which these frames inform the other disciplines of interest is here postulated.

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Materialist physicalism

The purpose of this review is to explore the basic schools of thought within this field of

study and where applicable note the usefulness of those core schools in painting the picture of

the mind’s innate capacity to promote homeostasis, growth and happiness in the individual. This

intellectual frame is not among those in this review of recent literature that provides any support

for this capacity. Rather, the position is that the only sort of substance in the universe is physical

substances, and there is nothing unique or special about a mental event or property (Dennett,

2007).

Often appealed to in an attempt to justify this line of thinking is the knowledge argument.

The knowledge argument is a thought experiment in which one is asked to imagine a

neuroscientist, Mary, who is locked within a darkened room in which she sees only white and

black. This individual has an unlimited amount of knowledge about the physiology of sensory

perception. The paradox is whether or not Mary obtains new knowledge when she leaves this

imaginary room (Blackmore, 2012; Dennett, 2007). Concerns of the intangibility of the

phenomenal experience of sensory data (qualia) are brought into question. The veritable

Cartesian theatre or incorporeal space in which the projection and mental experience of a sensory

event exists in a model that supports the phenomenal aspects of consciousness. If in the event we

accept the premise that upon exiting her cell she gains new phenomenal knowledge about the

world, we must also accept the idea that cognitive knowledge of the physical is not inclusive of

the experience of the physical and hence qualia points to the nonphysicality of consciousness.

This premise has tremendous implications for the manner in which we approach and discuss the

ontology of mind and construction of meaning in our lives.

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The position of the major proponents of this model is that qualia ought to be disqualified,

phenomenology supplanted with heterophenomenology and all forms of dualism are “forlorn”

and detrimental to the scientific pursuit of knowledge and betterment of humanity (Dennett,

1991, 2007). In an effort at disqualification of qualia, the knowledge argument is approached in

the following way:

And so, one day, Mary’s captors decided it was time for her to see colors. As a trick, they

prepared a bright blue banana to present as her first color experience ever. Mary took one

look at it and said, “Hey! You tried to trick me! Bananas are yellow, but this one is blue!”

Her captors were dumfounded. How did she do it? “Simple,” she replied. “You have to

remember that I know everything—absolutely everything—that could ever be known

about the physical causes and effects of color vision. So of course before you brought the

banana in, I had already written down, in exquisite detail, exactly what physical

impression a yellow object or a blue object (or a green object, etc.) would make on my

nervous system. So I already knew exactly what thoughts I would have (because, after

all, the ‘mere disposition’ to think about this or that is not one of your famous qualia, is

it?). I was not in the slightest surprised by my experience of blue (what surprised me was

that you would try such a second rate trick on me). I realize it is hard for you to imagine

that I could know so much about my reactive dispositions that the way blue affected me

came as no surprise. Of course it's hard for you to imagine. It's hard for anyone to

imagine the consequences of someone knowing absolutely everything physical about

anything!” (Dennett, 2007, p. 103)

The idea behind this thought experiment is that due to her vast and expansive knowledge relative

to the sensory processing cascade involved in visual consciousness, she would be able to spot

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any attempt at trickery. That she is able to forecast the differences in processing yellow versus

blue supports, for Dennett, the notion that there is no case-by-case and individual variance in the

experiential element of visual consciousness. No new knowledge is therefore gained after she

leaves the room. Subsequent polemical content chapters will explain individual differences in

post-thalamic association and advocate for them as a more accurate definition of qualia that the

one Dennett tries to disqualify. Things like selective attention and association with memory

preserve the importance of qualia and the position of infinite variance in the subjectivity of the

sweetness of a rose.

There are three basic varieties of materialistic philosophy: radical, reductive and

emergent (Velmans, 2009). In the radical variety (also referred to as eliminative) the notion that

there is anything special about consciousness is rejected (Dennett, 1991, 2007). In the reductive

variety the existence of consciousness is accepted, but the assertion is made that science will

discover it to be nothing more than a state of the brain. Emergentism is the most appealing of

these and claims that consciousness is a higher order property of the brain that supervenes on

neural activity and cannot be reduced to it. In this frame we find support for the power of the free

decisions we make to literary sculpt the contours of our brain and modulate synaptic connectivity

(Little, 2002). The literary voices that speak of the inadequacy of the materialistic account of the

mind to provide useful insights into what it means to be human are much more convincing

(Tallis, 2010).

Moderate materialism (emergentism)

The basic assertion of this position are that: (1) consciousness is necessarily dependent on

neurobiological states, (2) nonetheless, consciousness is not reducible to neurological states,

since research in neuroplasticity provides evidence that conscious experiences, such as learning

MELIORATIVE MIND 31

facilitate neurobiological changes in organisms (Little, 2002). This anti-reductionist orientation

holds that the mind is emergent from and hence dependent upon the neurological systems of the

brain but simultaneously it does not reduce to those neurological systems. That is to say, this

theory posits that due to evidence in neuroplasticity (that the mind can change the brain), the

mind though dependent upon is distinct and holds autonomous power over biological systems.

Consciousness is emergent from the biological and simultaneously supervenes over that system.

Combined materialistic assertions of the origin of consciousness with phenomenological

descriptions of experience to create a more complete picture of the mind. Primary theses: “(1)

consciousness is necessarily dependent on neurobiological states; (2) nonetheless, consciousness

is not reducible to neurological states, since research in neuroplasticity provides evidence that

conscious experiences, such as learning facilitate neurobiological changes in organisms.” (Little,

2002, p. vii.). This theory posits that intentionality, behaviors, actions and thoughts supersede,

have power over and are greater than the brain regions from which they arise and are dependent.

Appeals to anecdote and personal experience with neuroplastic reconfiguration of the brain in the

face of life threatening conditions such as temporal lobe epilepsy have been discussed at length

and presented as a means of supporting the emergentist position (Strong, 2010).

Quantum dualist interactionism

The existence of matter in space is thought to be, according to quantum theory not a

certainty but a phenomena that is wholly dependent upon the directed attention of the observer.

Until data about the existence of something is taken into our faculties of observation, existence

of particles is a probability rather than a certainty (Velmens, 2009). Here physics and

neurophysiology merge to inform our understanding of the power of intentionality, a core theme

in the philosophy of mind. It becomes obvious in our considerations of this sort of interaction

MELIORATIVE MIND 32

how necessary the pluri-disciplinary approach is to understanding the basic operations of

consciousness.

This interaction is proposed to occur at the individual neuronal level where we find that

“conscious will exercises motor control (and other brain functions), but influencing quantum

mechanical events in way that momentarily increases the probability of exocytosis, the release of

neurotransmitters substances at synaptic clefts that causes post synaptic neurons to fire”

(Velmens, 2009, p 17). If thought and directed attention can impact the spatial orientation and

existence of matter, then there is indeed an element of consciousness that is superior to the

currently realized strong and weak forces in physics. Velmens (2009) continues by noting that

consciousness might itself be a form of energy currently unknown to physics, in which

case conversation of energy would have to include the energy of consciousness, and

transforms from physical to consciousness could, in principles, be found. …mental events

might intervene in very small degrees in the unstable equilibrium of the brain at the

microscopic probabilistic level – a form of influence that might not be inconsistent with

physical determinism at the macroscopic level (p. 250).

Res extensia and res cogitans are not two types of stuff that exist in a parallel state but rather

interchangeable and interactive via our power of intention.

In a groundbreaking paper presented at the Tuscan conference on consciousness studies,

Dr. Stuart Hammeroff (1994) delineated the mechanism at the cellular level that gives rise to the

mind via the interaction of microtubles, the protein carrying structures that manipulate the

nucleus of the cell during division. Here he outlined these processes as the most important

process in our considerations of the inner workings of consciousness. He uses the phrase

quantum coherence to refer to the causal interaction between conscious intentional events and

MELIORATIVE MIND 33

micro-neural events within the cells of the brain. His other basic assertions provide quantum

explanatory theories for several of the problems within the philosophy of mind including: (1)

quantum coherence accounts for the unitary sense of self, (2) quantum indeterminicity accounts

for non-deterministic free will and (3) computing via quantum superposition accounts for non-

formulaic intuitive processing (p. 92). Here there is an embodiment of the free decisions we

make at the micro quantum level within the cells of our body. The consciousness of the entire

organism exists in each individual cell and cell system as a “microconsciousness”. One of the

more notable assertions that come out of this theory is that although what we as a holistic

organism with a cohesive brain experience as consciousness arises from the totality of

coordinated firings of cells within our brain, each individual neuron in itself has remarkable

communicative and processing capability. Neural connections are not “individual switches”, but

are rather like entire computers in how many axonal branches they are capable of extending

beyond the soma or body of the cell (p. 97).

Naturalistic dualism

The prose in The Conscious Mind repeats often one core argument in favor of mental

properties. He asks us to ponder why ought any of the proposed physical or neurological

correlates of consciousness give rise to the phenomenal mind at all (Chalmers, 1996)? Why

ought quantum coherence in the microtubules, 40-hertz rhythmic activity in the thalamocortical

system or reentrant loops in the thalamus give rise to the subjective experience of thinking,

emoting and experiences the world around us? A secondary contention implicit in the theories of

dualism is that there is an ineffable or indescribable aspect to qualia that defies any attempts to

explain away its properties or reduce it to its causal roots. Naturalistic dualism implies that

MELIORATIVE MIND 34

mental properties are indeed distinct, but all the physical laws of the world hold and those mental

properties do not supervene or exist in a metaphysical way.

Professor Chalmers is noted as a prominent Australian philosopher who coined the phrase

“hard problem” referring to the difficulty with making a correlation between biological

happenings and our subjective experience of experiencing, thinking and existing in the world.

His background in cognitive psychology informs his development of the term “easy problem”

which refers to issues the hard sciences can address including organic processing of information

by the thalama-cortical system, association and relay of information across areas of the brain via

white fibers and the corpus collosum and similar lines of inquiry.

According to the theory of naturalistic dualism, consciousness is seen as a supervenient

property in the sense that rather than Being deterministically subservient to biological structures

and genetic transcription is capable of overriding those instructions and enacting neuroplastic

changes in the brain. Chalmers’ discussion of supervenience is central to his philosophical

orientation and is subcategorized as local, global, logical and natural.

To supervene, for Chalmers is to have the propensity to determine the property of some

subservient set of properties. Local supervenience implies at the individual level and global

implies the properties or facts of the entire world determine a set of subservient properties or

facts. He uses the term logical to describe conceptual subservience of the property that that

primary property is supervenient to whereas natural refers to objective, physical or empirical

supervenience. His position is that consciousness is irreducible. One core argument Professor

Chalmers poses is that the causal leap from neural processing, quantum coherence in the

microtubules and other materialist, physicalist explanations to phenomenal consciousness is

lacking and therefore his dualistic explanation is the defensible and logically warranted.

MELIORATIVE MIND 35

Property dualism

The cellular processing of information is measured in terms of microliters of serotonin at

the synaptic cleft, varying amplitudes of brain waves and other objectives measure of the micro

cellular and macro brain region activity within us; these data project a clear and distinct category

of information that while adequate for measuring the aerobic consumption of glucose within our

brain cells, does not give us an adequate portrait of the phenomenal (Laureys & Tononi, 2009;

White, 2007). It stands to reason, therefore, that the importance of the experiential element of our

consciousness points to the necessity of property dualism. Therein we find the assertion that the

body (namely neuroscience and its explication of the functions of different areas of the brain)

and the mind are different properties of a unified definition of consciousness.

There are a few variations of philosophical schools of thought within property dualistic

theory that must be explored. Macpherson (2006), eloquently noted the crucial difference among

the varieties of dualistic theory, noting variations in the degree to which mental properties are

attributed to physical matter (universal application is referred to as panpsychism and proposes

that “all physical ultimates are experiential” (p. 73). This position furthermore posits that

mentality is a fundamental and ubiquitous part of the universe (Seager, 2012). Universal

application of some aspects of our consciousness to lower levels of the biological and physical

world is referred to as panprotopsychicism. This frame of mind proposes that consciousness, in

all its uniqueness and with all its special properties, cannot arise from something that does not

possess mental property of some kind. It is rooted in the assertion that you cannot give what you

do not possess --- that is to say, the physical and biological elements of the universe from which

we arise cannot come together to create a conscious Being unless they have some conscious

processing of their own; the metal cannot be ontologically dependent on non mental features of

MELIORATIVE MIND 36

the world.

Property dualism is an appealing theory because while maintaining the commitment to

empirical science as a valid and true way of knowing, it appeals to what has been called by

Aranyosi (2008) “the metal enrichment of the physical…[via intuitive observations that] some

movements are actions rather than movements, some verbal behavior is meaningful rather than

mere emissions of sounds, some brain states are desires rather than mere brain states” (p 69).

Prescribing meaning and valuing the personal narrative and emotional variability that inevitably

follows our consciousness and experience of Being human I have anecdotally found to be the

most appealing attribute of property dualism.

In terms of the logical issues that make it appealing, property dualism is proposed due to

the problematic best explicated as in the following passage:

…even if we identify experiences with brain states, there is still the question of what

makes the brain state an experience, and the experience it is; it seems like that must be an

additional property the brain state has…There must be a property that serves as our mode

of presentation of the experience as an experience... (Perry, 2001, p. 18)

That is to say, basically, the transition from objectively described brain state to subjectively

experience mental state is not clear in the scientific model. Understanding the experience or

holistic higher order consciousness of its associated brain state is like for the first person

ontological observer of that state is an integral concern.

Higher order or deeper and more profound consciousness (a property of the mind distinct

from the biologic) is not just about separation from the influences of one’s peer group but also

raising one’s mental acuity and capacity via inner awareness and training. An advanced mind is

not just a critical mind with viewpoints all its own --- it is one in which the inner observer is self-

MELIORATIVE MIND 37

aware, has a sense of self and existence that transcends the physical body (for this vessel is

imperfect, transit and prone to degradation), and can predict its reactions to the outside world and

capacity for manipulation and bringing forth to conscious the various categories of thought ---

philosophic, introspective, intraspective, anthropologic and mathematic. To the extent that we

are totally aware of the types of conscious experience our genetic endowment and inner training

has provided us and endeavor to best utilize them, we are achieving a type and level of

consciousness that is superior and more conducive to inner growth, contentment and fulfillment

(Niculescu, Schork & Salomon, 2010).

In our effort to justify the distinct nature of mental properties on an epistemological level

we return to the knowledge argument where the following characterization of Mary’s new

phenomenal experience is provided:

Mary is reared in a colorless environment but learns all there is to know about the

physical and functional nature of color and color vision. Yet she acquires new knowledge

when she leaves the room for the first time and sees colored objects. Jackson concludes

that there are facts about what it is like to see red that go beyond the physical and

functional facts, and so dualism is true…

Mary knew about the subjective experience of red via an objective concept from

neuroscience. On leaving the room, she acquires a subjective concept of the same

subjective experience. In learning what it is like to see red, she does not learn about a

new property. She knew about that property in the room under an objective concept of it

and what she learns is a new concept of that very property. One can acquire new

knowledge about old properties by acquiring new concepts of them. I may know that

there is water in the lake and learn that there is H2O in the lake. In so doing, I do not

MELIORATIVE MIND 38

learn of any new property instantiated, and in that sense I do not learn of any new fact. I

acquire new knowledge that is based on a new concept of the property that I already

knew to be instantiated in the lake. (Block, 2006, p. 57).

Note that this characterization of the knowledge argument is nearly identical to Chalmer’s

naturalistic dualism and contains the implicit assertion that mental properties are conceptually

distinct rather than metaphysically distinct. That is to say, in this version the mental is not

composed of a different sort of basic substance.

On reductionism

The variety of ways in which the mental realm is described as Being categorically distinct

from the physical realm brings to the forefront of our attention a key concept one must fully

comprehend to make any sense of the discourse in consciousness studies: reduction. It is, put

most simply the variety of ways in which the mind has been described as arises from or Being

instantiated by one of the several proposed neurological correlates or nonphysical elements of

the cosmos. Churchland (1989) provides us a definition using the language of formal logic as

follows:

In the sense of reduction that is relevant here, reduction is first and foremost a relation

between theories. Most simply, one theory, the reduced theory TR stands in a certain

relation (specified below) another more basic theory TB. Statements that a phenomenon

PR reduces to another phenomena PB are derivative upon the more basic claim that the

theory that characterizes the first reduces to the theory that characterizes the second (p.

178).

The theories to which she refers here include the neurophysiological theories of the correlation

between neurotransmitter-mediated action potential generation and mental events and theories of

MELIORATIVE MIND 39

the cartography of the psyche. To be reductionistic in one’s approach to describing

consciousness is to discount the importance of the phenomenal experience of one’s mind. That

which consciousness is reduced to becomes the core deterministic factor in the production of

consciousness. Any variety of the reductionistic accounts of consciousness are, I would argue,

inherently dehumanizing and mechanizing. If conscious is subservient to the deterministic

carrying out of genetic instructions, there is no place for free will. To mechanize is to say one

can play god and create strong artificial intelligence that embodies all the properties and qualities

of human consciousness.

Epistemology and hermeneutics

Consciousness is a term I have come to label the socio-emotional-intellectual apparatus

(this term refers to essentially our consciousness situated in the context of the human social

system that provides reinforcement or retribution for modes of thinking and Being in the world).

The primary modality by which this apparatus interacts and interprets the data in the world is

based upon foundational epistemological premises and criteria by which we accept data as true

and valid. In the same vein is the style by which we interpret that data --- our personal

hermeneutic is an integral concern (Dreyfus, 1984; van Niekerk, 2002).

The universality of the hermeneutical experience has been often argued in literature (van

Niekerk, 2002). The field of hermeneutics is concerned largely with the theory of interpretation.

That is to say, it is concerned with the secondary associations, processing and understanding of

data that enters consciousness. The frame of Gadamer, a writer who draws upon Heidegger in his

characterization of the hermeneutical problematic as an ontological problem concerned with the

problem of the way of Being of that Being for whom its Being is to understand Being (van

Nierk, 2002). This convoluted proposition is basically to say that our purposeful assertion of

MELIORATIVE MIND 40

ourselves in the world via our mode of Being may facilitate transmission of our Being. Using our

mental apparatus as a mode of transmission and reception of Being is the core concern of this

hermeneutical frame. Awareness of the degree of success of our ontological hermeneutic is

crucial. A fascinating take on linguistics and its bearing on hermeneutics is given in the section

wherein the author points out that

we do not possess or control language…we learn language…through living

conversation…it takes hold of us…language does not belong to us, we belong to

it…human experience is not a non-linguistic or pre-linguistic given that we,

asautonomous subjects, articulate by finding and creating the right words…we respond to

the claims of experience (van Niekerk, 2002, p. 57).

Hermeneutic interpretation is unavoidably culturally bound by colloquialisms and other

normative modes of communication; and indeed, it colors the degree to which characterize our

lives as experiences in a positive or negative light.

Epistemological inquiry seeks to examine “nature and scope of knowledge and rational

belief” and operates by “formulating and assessing arguments for skeptical conclusions that we

do not have knowledge of various kinds” (Steup, 2005). This field is also interested in the

“evaluation of thought processes and the relationship of science to philosophy” (Conne

&Feldman, 2005, p. 270). The purpose of the lines of inquiry and discourse that happen in

epistemology are, according to Conne & Feldmann (2005), to examine

three conditions: truth, belief and justification… [knowledge is justified if in the event]

what is known has to be a fact and thus true: the person has to regard it as true, that is

belief it; and the person must have an adequate basis for believing it --- that is, have

sufficient justification for believing it (p. 270).

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Other lines of argument stipulate that for us to have knowledge, the justification that is proposed

must be undefeated – that is to say, there is no truth that can be imagined or proposed that would

discount or refute a piece of knowledge. Other lines of argument propose that the rationale for

justification be conclusive.

Extrapolation to philosophy of mind is both necessary and intuitive: epistemology seeks

to determine which framework for understanding the world most completely and accurately

captures the totality of the stuff that we understand as our entire inner collection of thoughts.

Inclusion of the impossibly verbose and voluminous collection of our life experiences and our

often unspeakable and volatile emotionality must also be considered in such a framework. The

capacity to know the true and valid reality of the world out there via the sensory triggers that are

emitted and received by us has been in literature contrasted with phenomenal, inner knowing

(Horgan & Kriegel, 2007). This proposition is presented that these inner states are

circumstantially infallible and irrefutable. More formally stated in the language of logic, the

assertion contained in this essay is that “for any mental state M of any subject S, if S believes

that M is F, then M if F” (Horgan & Kriegel, 2007, p. 46). That is to say, what people say about

their mentation is an absolute truth. Phenomenal modes of belief are said to be stable, reliable

and predictive. That is to say, each time we experience a color, taste or smell the type of

consciousness that is formed within us is a durable category. These internal states are proposed

to be self-representing and experienced internally using an intrinsic, inbuilt awareness that we all

naturally possess as humans.

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Existential theory

As previously stated, the inclusion of existential philosophy and its intersection with

theories of the psyche is primary due to the complementary nature of several of the core lines of

thought with the existential paradoxes. The themes in this body of work include the need for us

to assert of our ontological selves while simultaneously navigating the ever-present threat of

nothingness; other key themes are, of course the paradoxes of meaning and meaningless,

isolation and connection, freedom and responsibility and Being and nothingness (Crowell, 2012).

There is a core experience of anxiety and trepidation that is associated with our awareness of

these anxieties that is a common thematic element in existential work (Crowell, 2012;

Kaufmann, 1975). The divide among existential theorists in the degree to which they emphasize

the need to use faith and our inherent spiritual element becomes clear when we hear herein

Kierkegaard speak of man as “the synthesis of the soulish and the body…the third factor is

spirit…the spirit is present but in a state of immediacy, in a dreaming state” (Kaufmann, 1975, p.

55). This is contrasted with the nihilistic denial and urgency to recognize the absolute freedom

that we possess advocated by Nietzsche. Nihilistic denial and its insistence that the only way in

which we can really come into Being and evaluate from afar the truths about values and true

selves is likely to be the subset of the existential ideas that receives the greatest amount of

attention in this work.

One can imagine how the idea of dasein, or Being in the world would intersect with the

cognitive theatre from which we formulate our modes of Being and receive and process the

external world’s positive and negative feedback about our mode of Being. Crowell (2012) in a

chapter on Consciousness and Sartre’s Existentialism noted the following:

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…Being-in-itself is revealed, and this can only be thanks to something altogether

other than it, consciousness. Consciousness must therefore be a type of Being that is

not what the in-itself is: it is not; it is not-itself; it is what it is not. Consciousness,

however, is nothing but Being-revealing and so depends on something other than

it, which it reveals (p. 128).

Conclusions, Themes and Unifying Comments

The scope and pluri- or trans-disciplinary nature of this literature review requires a very

unique approach to discussing the themes and patterns that have emerged. As I went through

these various resources, I attempted to hold in the back of my mind the underlying presumptions

that are left unsaid or implicit in the writings of one area borrowed from another. For example,

the refutation of panpsychism, a controversial viewpoint in philosophy of mind that ascribes

mind-like properties to less complete substances and organisms in the world, is inherent in the

writings of Laureys (2009) and other materialist scientists. Similarly, existential writers that

speak of the unavoidable crisis borne of our awareness of the finiteness of our physical bodies

presume that the consciousness that resides is that body is not a ghost in the machine (Kaufmann,

1975). As it is the intention of this work to paint a multi-colored portrait of consciousness, I

attempted to ponder and envision the extent to which these areas could be rationally combined or

whether such an effort would create an incoherent amalgamation of ideas. From my reflections

on literature to date, a few possible logical combinations emerged and will be expounded upon in

subsequent sections. For example: (1) support of intentionally and property dualism informs

navigation of existential crises and (2) evidence from neuroplasticity informs the intentional

power the way in which we direct our thoughts has implications on Searle’s characterization of

intentionality.

MELIORATIVE MIND 44

Several resources (Gervais & Wilson, 2005; Niculescu, Schork, & Salomon, 2010; Tallis,

2010) pointed to the positive idea I have attempted to emphasize which puts a great deal of

emphasis and faith in our innate capacities. One theme that emerged across several disciplines is

the power of intention. The way in which we direct our intentional thoughts has the tremendous

and remarkable power over both the phenomenal experience of consciousness and the neural

connectivity that gives rise to that consciousness. Here evidence from neuroplasticity (Little,

2002, Strong, 2010) supports the claims of supervenience that exists in dualistic philosophy

(Chalmers, 1996). And indeed, this cross-disciplinary support for the power of intention provides

support to the positivistic frame I will attempt to weave throughout my polemical remarks; it also

notably provides a useful framework for a critique and discussion of the recommendations for

addressing the core anxieties that according to existentialists (Kaufmann, 1975) are at the heart

of our Being. Another theme that emerged in the neuroscientific literature that is of note

(Laureys, 2010) is that the quest for the neurological correlates of consciousness is stymied by

the variability and difficulty with the subjective, phenomenal expression of a brain state. That is

to say, when an MRI observes oxygenation and activation of an area such as the amygdala,

measuring the quality, intensity and type of emotional state that follows that activation is for all

intents and purposes, imprecise guesswork. Hence another theme to note in the discourse in the

neurosciences and the associated pursuit of the correlates of consciousness is that although much

is known about, for example, the thalamo-cortical connections and the ability our conscious

minds have to amplify incoming sensory signals (Min, 2010), the totality of subjective,

phenomenal experience has not been operationalized or measured with the instruments of

neuroscience.

With respect to the themes I picked up on in my review of the other disciplines reviewed,

MELIORATIVE MIND 45

what I found most intriguing about the discourse in existential theory is that in its

characterization of the human mind as at the most basic level conflicted, anxious and in a state of

fluid, continuous evolution; it points directly to a philosophical doctrine that rejects deterministic

materialism. Between the lines of existential theory lie answers to question about the Cartesian

theatre, intentionality and dualism; between the lines of scientific literature on the global

workspace lie useful insights into the philosophical questions about the explanatory gap.

Researcher and authors across all the areas of literature I’ve reviewed are recalcitrant to make

these sorts of interdisciplinary leaps due to the specialized semantics and insular nature of each

discipline. There is also what has been termed a hegemony of knowledge policy among

individuals involved in disciplinary work (Newell, 1998) --- that is to say, data collection,

manuscript editing and approval of new knowledge is an insular and exclusive element of the

work across disciplines.

That being said, I also made an effort to notice the prevalence of the various schools of

thought within in each area of interest. The past several hundred years of bearded white men

quarrelling about types, mental properties, physical properties and substances has not yielded an

agreed upon argument for what sort of stuff consciousness fundamentally is. I have a bias

towards the moderate materialism of Dr. Little (2002), however the premises in the arguments of

Chalmers and Dennett provide two alternative conclusions that are directly at odds with each

other. Nonetheless, the prevailing wisdom remains substance monistic materialism. This

viewpoint is pervasive in the scholarly journals of philosophy and implied element of the

writings of Dahaene and the other notable neuroscientists working on the question of the

neurological correlates of consciousness.

MELIORATIVE MIND 46

I have attempted in this review to make the case for why conclusions and findings in one

of the fields I have discussed here are apropos to finding resolution in another and allow

consciousness to fully come into fruition in a positive way. My review revealed no attempts to

merge fields in the way I am proposing to here; hence this project will be unique in the way in

which I paint a portrait of the universal, though for many latent, potential of consciousness to

move each individual in a self-fulfilling direction in our lives.

MELIORATIVE MIND 47

CHAPTER THREE:

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

PROJECT:

A POSITIVISTIC AND

CROSSDISCISPLINARY LOOK

AT HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS

No, it is not possible

For any inner cry

To remain unheard.

Self-awakening

Means

God-flowering

In and through me.

Your heart’s cry is a real treasure.

Your heart’s cry flies like an eagle

To reach the highest goal of your

purest soul.

(Sri Chinmoy, 1997).

fig 2. Diagram from Utriusque Cosmi Historia (Fludd, 1629)

MELIORATIVE MIND 48

Preface

The intellectual and imaginative capacities within us grant us the potential to envision

things much more fantastic than that which we have a direct sensory experience of. In the

seventeenth century Fludd envisioned a model wherein the basic constituent part of the mind

were proposed to be senses, intellect and faculties of imagination. Implied by this model is the

preeminence of our capacity for intellectualization above the sensations and perceptions we as

biological organisms experience as the results of our interaction with the world around us. The

mind is an instrument whose powers span the spectrum from the most devilish, destructive and

evil to the creative potential to contribute positive energy on both the macro human system level

and micro individual psyche level. It is the focusing, narrowing and actualizing of these powers

that is the primary focus of this work; readers will gain insights into several existential human

universals, the psychic elements of which are inherently imprinted onto the thoughts we find

ourselves returning to can be reduced by recognizing the logical truth in an orientation in

philosophy of mind. We’ll also find evidence from neurodiversity and plasticity supports the idea

that we have tremendous power to interact with our biological in a manner conducive to

movement across many developmental rivers and tides: those of individuation, actualization and

self-realization.

I must begin this discussion, however, with a useful compendium on the varieties of

philosophical approaches to consciousness. Indeed, it is beyond doubt that the manner in which

that mind is approached philosophically informs the degree to which we are capable to utilize its

positive potential. From the historical advent of the Cartesian split between rex cogitans and rex

extensa, the categorically distinct nature of our faculties of thought, reason and imagination have

been characterized as setting us apart from the barbarous apes and other creatures that are a slave

MELIORATIVE MIND 49

to their instincts and unable to generate critical thoughts and purposefully direct their own lives

and inner mental processes. The notion of consciousness as setting us apart from less evolved

primates is implicit in Hiedeger’s Letter on Humanism wherein homo humanis is distinct from

homo barbarus in the sense that civilized humans possesses the Roman virtues of erudition and

aptitude for self-reflective and rational thought.

This capacity for deep self-awareness is a double edged sword: on the one hand it permits

the creation of masterpieces of art, science and culture; and on the other we carry around the

burden and basic anxieties associated with our awareness of the unavoidable endpoint of our

lives: “sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything” (Shakespeare, as cited in Bloom &

Loos, 2008 p. 78). My literary inquiries into the way in which some of the output of the greatest

minds in history has not revealed anything close to a consensus with respect the core set of

questions that are an inherent part of this inquiry. What is clear, however, and one point I will

emphasize throughout this work, is that there is indeed something special about the mind that

sets it apart from the wholly deterministic behavior of other physiological processes in our

bodies; conduction through the sino-atrial node and coordinated contraction of the heart is an

entirely deterministic act. The way we direct out thoughts, however, has tremendous potential to

shape who we are and how we feel. Indeed this potential to be purposefully directed and be the

author of our inner psychological life endows the mind with a property clearly and distinctly

apart from the lower level physiological processes such as digestion, hormonal regulation and

autonomic function; these unique properties of the mental realm, I shall argue, support the

foundational question noted previously on.

MELIORATIVE MIND 50

On the Rationale for Cross-disciplinarity

As noted, many shortcomings exists among the lines of academic discourse in which

consciousness studies is encapsulated; philosophy allows for insights into the nature of reality

but is unable to provide any useful guidance for understanding the cartography of the psyche ---

patterns inherent in the unfolding of the human life course, our faculties of abstract thought

create set of predictable emotional and existential conflicts the resolution of which can be

informed by allowing the conclusions from one discipline to intersect with the problematics of

another. Scholars are recalcitrant to engage in this sort of merging of ideas across vastly different

academic areas. The reason for this is largely the highly specialized knowledge, lingo and

conventions within each discipline that makes this sort of work difficult; nonetheless, there is a

great need for crossing boundaries and construction of new knowledge and perspectives. Herein I

will draw largely upon the work of Newell (1998) where we find a sophisticated procedure that

guides an effective way to use interdisciplinarity as not a mere explication of multiple

perspectives, but rather as a knowledge constructing hermeneutic. Prior to further analysis, it is

necessary to share the following definitions from Newell (1998):

• Discipline: a branch of learning or a field of study characterized by a body of

intersubjectively acceptable knowledge; pertaining to a well-defined realm of entities,

systematically established on the basis of generally accepted principles with the help of

methodical rules of procedures; e.g. mathematics, chemistry, history (p. 70, emphasis

added)

• Pluridisciplinary work: scientific work (teaching, research, learning) done by one or

more scientists that implies such juxtaposition or subordination of different disciplines

that the competence in one discipline presupposes a rather thorough knowledge of other

MELIORATIVE MIND 51

disciplines, e.g., a biologists who in additional to biology devotes himself to physics,

chemistry and mathematics (p. 71)

• Interdisciplinary work: scientific work done by one or more scientists who try to solve a

set of problems whose solutions can be achieved only by integrating parts of existing

disciplines into a new discipline, e.g. psycholinguistics, biophysics (p. 71). Note this

would be inclusive of areas within the field of consciousness studies such as

neurophenomenology, neurophilosphy and the like.

• Crossdisciplinary work: scientific work done by one or more scientist who try to solve a

problem or a set of problems that no discipline in isolation can adequately deal with, by

employing insights and methods or techniques of some related disciplines, without,

however any attempts being made to integrate the disciplines themselves or even parts

thereof into a new discipline. It is obviously mandatory to integrate the scientific

knowledge that immediately pertains to the problems at hand; however it is not assumed

that the integration achieved in this way and the experience so gained can be used as a

paradigm for the solution or other analogous problems, e.g. economists and physicians

employed to solve housing problems (p. 71 emphasis added).

• Transdisciplinary work: scientific work done by a group of scientists, each trained in one

or more different disciplines with the intention of systematically pursuing the problems of

how the negative side effects of specialization can be overcome so as to make education

(and research) more socially relevant. In transdisciplinary work the discussion between

the members of a carefully selected group may also focus on the concrete problems with

which society confronts. The difference between cross- and trandisciplinarity consists in

the fact that crossdisciplinary work is primarily concerned with finding a reasonable

MELIORATIVE MIND 52

solution for the problems that are so investigated, whereas transdiciplinary work is

concerned primarily with the development of an overarching framework from which the

selected problems and other similar problems should be approached (p. 72 emphasis

added).

Discussion of semantics and application

In these details we can clearly see the importance of the minute differences among these

definitions as they relate to consciousness studies work; outlining the substances correlated with

and linguistic constructs best applicable to consciousness is the primary focus, hence it can

clearly be seen why the manner of integration is an important concern. The position with respect

to consciousness I have expressed in this work approaches questions of definition and ascent of

the mind up the various frameworks for levels of mind as beyond the capacity of any single

discipline. The term intersubjectivity is key in our understanding of the knowledge produced by

individual disciplines; indeed, it is accepted on its own merits across the scholarly community

and among laypeople. This term refers to the expansive area between two subjects (in this case

domains of knowing); and in consciousness work the unresolved crises and problems are more

usefully approached by filling the space between these fields. The inherent epistemologically

productive capacity and durability of disciplines is accepted without question. The instruments of

observation utilized by neuroscience, for example, to collect objective data about brain tissue,

electrical activity and neuronal connectivity are presumed to be reliable, valid and correlated

with the actual events at the neuronal level. It may be questionable, however, how appropriate

self-reflexive ruminations in philosophy of mind are --- consciousness, limited in the confines of

consciousness, ponders consciousness in order to produce original knowledge about

consciousness. It will be important, hence, that I justify this self-reflective and circular nature of

MELIORATIVE MIND 53

consciousness as accurate instrument with which we produce knowledge about the consciousness

of anyone endowed with a fully functional pre-frontal cortex.

Another sense of the term intersubjective that bears consideration is that it involves some

phenomena, experience or datum that is shared across or between minds. That I have a mind and

can produce these sorts of self-reflexive thoughts about consciousness is intersubjectively valid

to the extent that my mind is human --- that is shared and co-conscious with others; that is to say,

in pondering the movement of my mind there is an awareness of that which is phenomeno-

logically co-occurring the mind of others. This sense of this term intersubjective relates to cross-

disciplinary consciousness work by addressing human issues in a creative way. Implied in the

core questions outlined in the opening chapter is that by virtue of being human and having

consciousness there is an intersubjectively valid and universally shared experience across all of

humanity; these experiences include coming into Being, tempering liberty with responsibility,

facing mortality and evolving towards our greatest potentiality. Approaching universals of

consciousness in an intersubjective fashion, I propose, is best done using the three disciplines I

have outlined. The contents of consciousness implied by the core questions I have raised have

intersubjective validity due to their inarguable ubiquity. Consciousness houses the self and all of

its vicissitudes that come about due to social interactions, reward and punishments; hence

naturally the struggle and process of coming into our idiosyncratic self is a lifelong process all

humans experience. Our sense of self-efficacy in this process of coming into being largely

dictates the degree to which we experience mental unrest and disquietude.

In presenting a useful definition of the mind and using conclusions from one area to

inform problems in another, I am employing a slightly modified version of cross-disciplinarity as

noted above. However, whereas Newell focuses much too heavily on disciplines as scientific

MELIORATIVE MIND 54

methods, I accept the possibility of the systemic use of logic, rhetoric and the observational tools

of the humanities as valid modes of knowledge production. In this method we recognize that

problems like correlating consciousness to material reality and outlining the processing cascade

that precedes our mind cannot be approached with a unidisciplinary approach. At the same time

this method recognizes the specialized modus operandi and isolated nature of areas of study such

as existential psychology; indeed, the professorial and editorial establishment at major

universities and publications would be hesitant to begin accepting original work that

amalgamates neuroscientific discourse with analysis of how best to achieve an anxiety free,

ontologically secure existence. This method of approaching consciousness, then, produces new

and useful ways of solving conundrums related to the mind without the construction of an

entirely new field of study. I will proceed in this section therefore, by noting the core set of

problems and the cross-disciplinary methodology I will utilize in subsequent sections of this

thesis and explicate the nature of the individual disciplines I draw upon in this work.

Reflections on cross-disciplinary work in consciousness. The disciplinary scope to be

covered in this thesis includes philosophy of mind, existential philosophy/psychology and

neuroscience. In the opening chapters I posed foundational queries related to tapping into our

natural potential for happiness, utilizing orientations in philosophy of mind to address existential

problems and understanding neural circuitry in in manner that supports its potential to promote

growth and contentment. Approaching these core queries, naturally, involves a highly

sophisticated and complex web of interrelationships among the areas included in this project.

Several conclusions from philosophy including, but not limited to the existence of free will and

intentionality inform an approach to existential anxieties. Similarly, a model of individual

neuronal processing and plasticity at that level is informed by the way we direct our thoughts and

MELIORATIVE MIND 55

temper our emotional states. Models of neuronal activity, therefore, that allow for two-way

causality will be favored. Novel approaches to resolution of several problems are possible via

similar combinations of ideas.

A cross-disciplinarity approach to academe must involve an awareness of the degree of

rigor with respect to observation and knowledge production. Conclusions agreed upon based on a

more lackadaisical methodology cannot be justifiably attributed to the problems of a discipline

that requires repeated testing by multiple scientists to come to a conclusion. Interestingly, we

find in Heidegger (whose ontological musings is the basis for the characterization of coming into

Being that is the subject of a later section) a very poignant comparison of the disciplines of

interest in this work:

Precisely from the point of view of the sciences or disciplines no field takes precedence

over another, neither nature over history nor vice versa. No particular way of treating

objects of inquiry dominates the others. Mathematical knowledge is no more rigorous

than philological-historical knowledge. It merely has the character of “exactness” which

does not coincide with rigor. To demand exactness in the study of history is to violate the

idea of the specific rigor of the humanities. The relation to the world that pervades all the

sciences as such lets them – each according to its particular content and mode of Being –

seek Beings themselves in order to make them objects of investigations and determine

their grounds ... To be sure, man’s prescientific and extrascientific activities are also

related to Beings. But science is exceptional in that, in a way peculiar to it, it gives the

matter itself explicitly and solely the first and last word (Heidegger as cited in Krell,

1993, p. 78).

Hence cross-disciplinarity recognizes the different criteria for exactness and production

MELIORATIVE MIND 56

of knowledge unique to the fields of interest. Here he notes the sterile distance that can be an

inherent part of scientific inquiry that seeks to describe and characterize the natural world. He

also crucially notes that no single discipline has absolute supremacy as the source of knowledge

about some phenomena. In the case of ontological security, coming into Being and movement

towards resolution of existential conflicts, Heidegger asserts, one need not look solely into the

discourse of psychological theories of mind. And naturally for the core questions related to

consciousness as a self-balancing, fulfilling instrument with the natural capacity to allow fruition

of an individual whose outward manifestations of his or her rich inner life is conducive to

growth, health and contentment --- the scientific perspective of Dennett, philosophical views of

Chalmers and transpersonal views of Dr. Stan Grof are not on their own an adequate source of

information.

The combination of conclusions I employ in this work, hence, will require the

construction of a unified epistemological standard that is the basis for the new knowledge that is

created by juxtaposing fields in a manner that is produces new and useful insights. One cannot

create useful cross-disciplinary conclusions by making incoherent connections between fields.

Prior to lengthier explication these ideas, it is prudent to discuss the disciplines

individually, noting methods and any unique criteria utilized for knowledge construction. As I

proceed to later extract from each field the most germane conclusions useful for addressing the

aforementioned problems in individual fields, it will be important to keep in mind any

differences among these fields in terms of the specific criterion used for knowledge production.

The largely metaphorical and abstract methods used among the philosophers, for example, may

not be initially compatible with the concrete experimental data of neuroscience.

MELIORATIVE MIND 57

Philosophical disciplinary methodologies. I previously delineated the core intents of

philosophical literature with a specific focus on the mind is to discuss the properties, reductive

nature and other similar elements of the mind. The larger context in which these core questions

about consciousness is situated in a field that provides a formal framework for the formulation of

logical arguments and quarrelsome discourse about several topics and includes, but is not limited

to: (1) the nature of reality, (2) the existence of free will, (3) materiality versus immateriality, (4)

deism versus atheism and much more. It is the directed attention of our internally generated act

of reason towards abstract principles and ideas. This is contrasted with the more objective data

based methods of other fields. Put more formally Findlay (2005) intelligently summarized the

characteristics of this domain as follows:

Philosophy may be said to be a critical examination of fundamental concepts and

principles, that is, concepts and principles which structure all or nearly all of our

experience, all of our language and its essential grammar and everything or fact or theme

that we can know or think of: It also in some of its exercises attempts to revise and to

simplify and tidy up such fundamental concepts and principles, so as to rid them of

unclarities [sic] and ambiguities—and also to free them from inner conflicts and from

conflicts with other fundamental concepts and principles which hinder their consistent

application (p. 141).

As a field, then, philosophy is concerned with the underlying framework or ideas that are

the core underpinning of the whole of reality and human experience. The nature of reasonable

thought, the element of being human that put constraint on what we are capable of bringing into

our consciousness and other ponderings about reality are the core concerns of this field. The

methods of presentation, organization and refutation of arguments within philosophy follows the

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rules of formal logic which have remained largely unchanged since the time of Aristotle. Fogelin

and Sinnott-Armstrong (2005) provides some guidance with respect to the nature of the formal

analysis of philosophical arguments. Here I will refer largely to his frame as the basis of my

disciplinary definition and later explication of the spectrum of philosophical arguments in

consciousness studies.

Arguments are put together in a basic structure that rests upon the construction of

foundational premises that are worded and weaved together such that the final statement ought to

be self-evidently true. For example:

All whales have blowholes for the intake of oxygen.

Sperm whales have blowholes for oxygen intake

∴ Sperm whales are whales.

The triangular dotted symbol is short hand in formal logic for “therefore”. Analysis of arguments

in standard form seeks to investigate the extent to which the argument as a whole is valid which

refers to the extent to which the conclusions follow from the premises. At a higher level than

validity is soundness, which refers to what degree the premises are truthfully constructed and

based in reality. Consider another example:

My thoughts are human thoughts.

All humans have human thoughts.

My metacognitive thoughts are human thoughts.

∴ my metacognitive thoughts can be generalized to other humans.

This is a formal way of re-stating the presumption of universalizability in the formal disciplinary

language of philosophy. It is constructed in a manner whereby the conclusions follow the

premises and each individual premise is correct. For further illustration of the difference between

validity and soundness, consider the below:

My thoughts are homicidal thoughts.

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All humans at times have homicidal thoughts.

Thoughts that are universally experienced are morally justified.

∴ acting out my homicidal thoughts and committing mass murder is justified.

Clearly, no one would agree that this is a sound argument; indeed, one could appeal to universal

human rights and moral principles. In subsequent outlining of arguments in philosophy of mind,

illustration of their fallacies will be achieved by breaking down their primary contentions into

this basic form. Basic process for confronting the validity and soundness of arguments is

eightfold and involves first the selection of a representative passage from a literary work that is

foundational and integral to the viewpoint one wishes to critique; Fogelin & Sinnott Armstrong

(2005) describe it thusly:

(1) do close analysis of the passage containing the argument, (2) list all explicit premises

and the conclusion in standard form, (3) clarify the premises and the conclusions where

necessary, (4) break up the premises and the conclusion into smaller parts where this is

possible, (5) arrange the parts of the argument into a chain or tree of subarguments where

this is possible, (6) assess each argument and subargument for validity, (7) if any

argument or subargument is not valid, or if it’s not clear why it is valid, add suppressed

premises that will show how to get from the premises to the conclusion, (8) assess the

truth of the premises” (p. 115).

Arguments are constructed to justify a position with respect to issues of a theological and

abstract nature; the construction and analysis of arguments, and inference of implied or

suppressed premises appeals to such subjective human constructs duty and honor and hence has

cross-cultural variability. This sets them, perhaps, in a lower epistemological category as

compared to the empirical instruments of scientific measurements which provide much more

objective data about the world.

MELIORATIVE MIND 60

The methods of philosophy, then, linguistically formalize a given Aristotelian or virtue-

based position; subjectivity and variability are, hence, an inevitable part of this line of inquiry ---

one could argue philosophy is ambiguity disguised with erudition. This is not to discount,

however, the strength of skillfully and formally constructed lines of argumentation for increasing

the clarity and verbosity of thought with respect to very important matters; and indeed, in this

work it is absolutely essential that I distill the various orientations about the mind into premises

prior to taking the conclusion of a given argument to placate the deleterious effects of unresolved

existential dread and anxiety.

In the construction and evaluation of the arguments, however, we must be mindful that

analysis of premises is an act which substantiates a given culturally variable principle or virtue

using a method best summarized by a certain great linguist who points out that “language is a

process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles

of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words

involves a process of free creation (Chomsky, 1987, p. 121). So while the methods of philosophy

can produce reliable, valid knowledge via a rigorous process, the hermeneutical norms have

cultural variability2.

Formal logic and recognition of fallacies. Formal methods of philosophy analyze the

feasibility of arguments based on a few model cases in which a line of reasoning is deemed not

sound, fallacious or fundamentally flawed in reasoning. Clarity about these cases is integral to

2 Chomsky's professorial appointment at MIT was in a "department of philosophy and linguistics." The 20th-century movement toward linguistic (or analytic) philosophy was often quite explicit about the agenda of eliminating, if not all of philosophy, at least all of those parts of philosophy that failed to acknowledge their reducibility to linguistic and conceptual analysis. So ethics, for instance, random becomes solely a matter of the analysis of ethical concepts (e.g,, about what the ordinary-language sense of notions like "good" is). And metaphysics was tossed out altogether because, said the analysts, its key notions just dissolve into meaninglessness when rigorously analyzed. This approach to philosophy was characteristic of Gilbert Ryle, for one, and through him influenced Dennett.

MELIORATIVE MIND 61

outlining my position against certain positions in philosophy of mind; it is rooted in their

inherent fallacies. These fallacies occur largely due to the stealthy, ambiguous or misleading use

of language. Here I will turn my attention to the basic varieties of logical fallacy discussed in

discourse on formal logic. One of these fallacies is vagueness wherein a concept discussed in

formal logic is not described as existing at its proper place along a spectrum; that is to say, when

one can speak of possession of consciousness in a vague fashion by saying that an individual is

“barely conscious” or “marginally conscious” without fully explicating what specific sensory

processing capacities, language production capabilities, working memory functioning and other

elements of mentation are present. When laying out formal logical arguments in philosophy of

mind, these minute details are absolutely germane to the discussion and their omission commits

the fallacy of clarity/vagueness.

A related concept related to the ill-defined or variously defined use of key terminology is

equivocation. In this fallacy one dances around several nuanced versions of a position, premise

or statement in order to appease a particular audience. Details are selectively omitted in an

attempt to conceal details about a position one is making. For example:

If one accepts the mind and body as separate types of substances, one can clearly see that

all humans possess an immortal soul and have certainty of the survival of the mind after

bodily death.

By immortal soul we mean that intangible aspect of consciousness placed within our

bodily vessel by a higher power.

A higher power can only be understood as the one true God, the Way and the Light as

described in Judeo Christian texts.

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Humans that accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior will have a mind that survives

bodily death.

Here the step-wise shift in position clearly demonstrates the fallacy of equivocation. As

this argument progresses, each premise uses clever linguistic devices to warp and meaning of the

word “soul”. Another notable fallacy is ad hominem wherein rather than preparing cogent and

well-formulated attacks on the foundational premises of an argument, one targets the personality

of the individual who prepared the argument.

An additional consideration when considering problems of construction or degree of

soundness is whether or not a given argument has been constructed using the deceptive sorites

method (from the Greek “soros” or “heap”); in this fallacious line of reasoning, we are again

reminded of the problems associated with lack of clarity along a spectrum for given concept.

Consider this example:

(1) An individual who is 50 pounds is not obese.

(2) If someone who is 50 pounds is thin, then someone who is 51 pounds is not obese

∴ (3) someone who is 51 pounds is not obese.

(4) If someone who is 51 pounds is not obese, then someone who is 52 pounds is not

obese.

∴ (5) someone who is 52 pounds is not obese

This line continues on and on – and the point at which the discreet line of division between the

concepts that inform the construction of these premises is not established. Clearly when one gets

to the one-ton man no one would agree that this individual is indeed obese as evidenced by

associated things like cardiovascular disease, immobility and so on. Arguments of the sorites

variety has some level of validity because their premises are true and seem to follow as they are

MELIORATIVE MIND 63

stacked up to a certain point; however they require us to consider whether the foundational

concept or idea on which the argument is based has a clearly delineated quantitative or

qualitative line of division. With obesity one could imagine an appeal to principles such as the

basic need to ensure a healthy life free of disease and appeal to correlates between a range of

weighs, the onset of pathophysiological conditions and the concept of obesity. One could

imagine construction of such a stacked argument for other ambiguous concepts such as

intelligence, existence, emotional states, and, most relevant to this work, possession of

consciousness. A plausible sorites argument of a qualitative variety regarding the latter might

look something like this:

(1) An individual who can mentally envision a triangle possesses consciousness.

(2) If an individual who can mentally envision a triangle possess consciousness, then an

individual who can mentally envision a triangle and a hexagon possesses consciousness.

∴(3) An individual who can mentally envision a triangle and a hexagon possess

consciousness.

(4) If an individual who can mentally envision a triangle and a hexagon possess

consciousness, then an individual who can imagine a triangle, a hexagon and a trapezoid

possess consciousness.

∴(5) An individual who can mentally envision a triangle a hexagon and a trapezoid

possess consciousness.

A variation might look like this:

(1) A person with an IQ of 185 can articulate vast knowledge, perform complex mental

operations and possesses consciousness.

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(2) If a person with an IQ of 185 can articulate vast knowledge, perform said operations

and possess consciousness, then a person with an IQ of 184 also possess consciousness

and perform the cognitive tasks…

∴ (3) A person with an IQ of 184 possesses consciousness and can perform these tasks.

Breaking down a concept such as consciousness using these methods requires that we

ponder the degree to which these concepts are clearly delineated, operationalized and

measurable. Clearly someone with an IQ in the “genius” range possess consciousness, but where

is the line of division? The first example calls into question the capacity for imagination that is a

primary element of the archaic diagram from Fludd and how well that has been precisely and

quantitatively articulated. The suppressed premise in this sorites is that imagination is a

quantifiable construct, which it quite clearly is not – the realm of imagination wherein mental

images appear, are geometrical labeled is not a spatial domain the precise three-dimensional

measure of which we can possibly obtain. There are no criteria by which we can assess this

sorites and quantify the number and dimensions of objects that consciousness is capable of

imagining. Clearly at a certain point the premise becomes absurd and is far beyond the finite

processing capability of human, but exactly where is difficult to say.

We can now clearly see now the basic way in which arguments are laid out in systematic

fashion in which they are formally reconstructed and demonstrated as possessing a level of

validity or soundness. In short, the methods utilized in philosophy employ the careful explication

of analysis and outline of the presumptions that underlie a given line of inquiry or statement.

This method, we will soon see, has cross-disciplinary utility and will be an integral part of the

construction of the knowledge-producing tool through which I will paint the picture of

consciousness.

MELIORATIVE MIND 65

Existential psychology’s disciplinary methodologies. The history of existential inquiry is

rooted first in the existential philosophers who pondered the nature of the human experience and

core anxieties that are a basic part of what it means to live, emote and experience that which lies

at the core of our Being. Philosophical works span the musings of Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard,

Nietzsche, Rilke, Kafka, Ortega, Jaspers, Heidegger, Sartre and Camus and are divided in terms

of the methods and ideas employed to address core existential anxieties. As a knowledge

producing field and reflective instrument in which, as previously noted, consciousness reflects

upon itself to produce universalizable knowledge about consciousness, the existentialists employ

not so much the production of formal arguments, contingencies and premises but rather artful

and reflective prose. This prose provides insights into presumed commonalities in the enfolding

of the human life course and the fears, dread and conflicts that arise from those fundamental

elements of being human.

Methods employed vary depending on whether more of a metaphysical or ontological

approach is used; in the former, discourse on layers of existence and the necessity of having

confidence in the truth of an omnipotent Godhead to alleviate anxieties is a core element of the

methods employed; in the latter, investigation of dasein via reflective work is utilized. As I am

not a man of faith and will argue in this work for intersections between specific constructs of

consciousness and our capacity for coming into Being, the existential works in that area will be

my primary focus.

Phenomenological investigations into the nature of dasein are Heidegger (as quoted in

Krell, 1993) notes, at their most basic level approached via a method that “is hermeneutic in the

most primordial signification of the word, where it designates the business of interpreting” (p.

312). When we realize the predication of our Being on nothingness and look within the void for

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individual phenomenal units of our existensia, we are engaged in the primary tool of existential

inquiry: the pursuit of the phenomenology of dasein. The method is the hermeneutic circle and

refers to our vacillation between reflection on the totality of our Being and the individual units of

meaning. This phenomenological-hermeneutic circle as a core method of existential inquiry as

expressed by Dreyfus (1984) consists of the following premises:

(1) since we must begin our analysis from within the practices we seek to interpret, our

choice of phenomena is already guided by the shared understanding of Being which has

made us what we are, (2) since this understanding may well be a disguise and distortion,

we cannot take our first interpretation at face value and (3) we must be prepared to revise

radically our first account on the basis of the phenomena that it reveals (p. 71).

This procedure for chasing after Being is furthermore an endeavor that hopes to find:

A kind of Being [that] demands that any ontological interpretation which sets itself the

goal of exhibiting the phenomena in their primordiality, should capture the Being of the

entity in spite of this entity’s own tendency to cover things up. Existential analysis,

therefore, constantly has the character of doing violence whether to the claims of the

everyday interpretation, or to its complacency and its tranquilized obviousness

(Heidegger as quoted in Krell, 1993 p. 64)

Full cognizance of Heidegger’s assertion here requires awareness of the particular dasein

the fruition of which is the goal of existential methods --- to that end, consider this possible

operationalization: dasein or Being is an ideal potentiality the emergence of which is contingent

upon giving the self the liberty of universality – and this self comes into Being via the purposeful

selection among the spectrum of abilities, intelligences, personality characteristics, lifestyle

choices and finally theological or atheistic mindsets. In sum, it is the separation from the mode of

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being ingested like black bile via the sociological system of positive and negative reinforcement;

this mode is supplanted with a Being congruous with what we ought to be in order to facilitate a

meaningful and instrumental existence that follows directly from internally generated needs and

wants rather than those that have been externally contrived.

The phenomenal aspect of existential theory is distinct from the more objective measures

of the hard psychological sciences; this difference was outline by no other than Piaget wherein

he rightfully pointed out that “philosophical psychology [phenomenology] constantly criticizes

scientific psychology for not ending in an ‘anthropology’ able to express the whole man, and I

have in particular been constantly criticized for being an intellectualist because I am only

interested in cognitive functions” (Piaget, 1971 p. 44). All that we fear, desire, dread, long for

and require for purposeful existence is the target of existential methodological analysis.

In both ontological and metaphysical lines of inquiry into the nature and fundamental

elements of existence, heuristic methods are employed as one of the key tools for accessing the

mind the qualities of which are the target of existential discourse. Indeed, one cannot speak of

the nature of the awareness of the dark side of what it means to be human (isolation, death,

awareness of nothingness and the like). The etymology of the word “heuristic” is the Greek “to

find”; this is appropriate considering the fact that the purpose of heuristic research is to increase

the scope, depth and breadth of vocabulary about some lived human phenomena. It involves

probing the depths of the human mind to find precise, articulate and useful ways of understand

our experience. At its core is an interest in any and all sensations, perceptions, thoughts, feelings,

memories or ruminations that enter the consciousness of the observer during periods of

immersion in the research question. It begins not with a structured hypothesis but is rather free

flowing and must involve the personal experience of the researcher. Moustakas (1990) best

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encapsulates the core purpose behind this methodology when he points out that: The heuristic

process requires a return to the self, recognition of self-awareness, and a valuing of one’s

experience…in heuristic research the investigator must have had a direct, personal encounter

with the phenomenon being investigated. There must have been actual autobiographical

connections… yet with virtually every question that matters personally, there is also a social –

and perhaps universal significance (pp. 13-14).

This process of inquiry, hence, involves formulation of some area of interest that

although personal, one presumes has universal external validity due to the presumption of the

universality of human experience (we are here reminded the aforementioned intersubjectivity

and Terence the Latin intellectual who notes: homo sum, humani nihil a me alinum pulo or I am

human, therefore I have a shared humanity with all).

Moustakas (1990) also developed phases and qualities of sensitivity required of the

researcher in order to be effective in his or her inquiry. The personality characteristics include:

(1) detached identification with the focus of inquiry (the ability to step apart from the research

question as an outside observer), (2) self-dialogue, (3) tacit knowing (experiential knowing

which includes immediately conscious aspects of experience and focal or subtle, invisible and

implicit aspects), (4) intuition, (5) indwelling (the ability to be attuned to hunches and immediate

feelings or impressions that enter awareness, (6) focusing and finally (7) internal frame of

reference (unique internally embodied perspectives from which emotional interpretations of

experience are derived).

The phases of the process include initial engagement (open inner exploration, self-

dialogue, receptivity to everything, clarification of question), immersion (allowing the question

to permeate one’s waking, lucid and dream states in order to facilitate crystallization),

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incubation, illumination, explication, creative synthesis and finally identifying courses of action.

This final stage involves formulation of method of practice and living in the world (Moustakas,

1990). These stages are designed to unlock our natural potential for using our own capacity for

inner exploration by unraveling the layers of the self and breaking free from the socially imposed

circulation of pretense; that is to say, in passing through the phases of this process we align our

mode of being in the world with the genuine self. We give words to previously unspoken

emotions that would otherwise breed impulsive behavior.

Illustrative anecdote of the methods of existential inquiry. Methodological abstractions

have very little use unless a technique for practical real world application can be imagined. This

is especially true of a field such as existentialism wherein the totality of the human experience

and all of our existence is included in the discourse. And although I did attempt herein to provide

a relatively accessible definition of dasein, it would be prudent to expound on this concept

further to facilitate coalescence of the principles that underlie this discipline.

At the core of the methods of existential psychology is deep inner reflective work that

seeks to do battle with anxieties that are an integral constitute of being. These anxieties are

rooted in conflicting fears and desires relative to connection, death, nothingness and the

existential vertigo that follow our freedom to be. I will proceed, then, by imagining the

methodical analysis in terms of transcendence of thanatological dread and emergence of dasein.

Imagine the case of Dalton, a 22-year-old male of above average intelligence. Dalton

comes from a very dysfunctional uneducated family. His household is run by a single parent

wherein intelligent dinner table conversation and positive paternal role modeling were never

present. Developmentally, Dalton exhibits mild social anxiety, low affect (outward expression of

emotionality), minimal eye contact and awkward patterns of communication. He additionally

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exhibits severe depression and isolationists tendencies. Though possessing the sexual desires

typical of a boy of his age, he is unable to connect sexually and remains largely confused about

his orientation. His social awkwardness precludes him from involvement in any sort of social

sporting events or other major social outings. Instead he prefers to spend his time with a close

group of friends with whom he engages in intellectual dialogues about life, the practicality of

suicide, life’s meaning and a unique brand of atheism he has developed after separating from a

non-denominational Christian church three years prior. He is in the immediately post high school

phase of his life, having barely graduated with a 2.1 GPA and not bothered with the SATs. Not

college bound or required to do so by parents with trust funds waiting for him, he finds himself

working at a dead end grocery store job and caught up in a counter culture of other wayward

youth from broken families with psyches fractures in a similar fashion. His social patterns were

noticed by high school friends and he unfortunately took a suggestion to become involved in the

all night dance counter-culture and the use of mind altering pills --- chemicals that artificially

remove the social barriers he’s battled with for years.

Now with an awareness of the particular dasein of Dalton, we are prepared to imagine

how the methods of existential inquiry apply to his case. Refer back the parallels between dasein,

self and freedom and the methods applicable to this case are clear. Dalton’s liberty to select or

latch on to elements of his self and allow his Being to come into fruition is limited by numerous

internal aspects of his psyche including: (1) no balance between his socially situated self and

internal, authentic self, (2) minimally developed capacity for coping with internal social

anxieties, (3) destructive ambivalence in relation to the ever-present threat of nothingness and

fragility of life as evidenced by ingestion of adulterated chemicals. In short, Dalton has no skills

for using isolation as a tool for substantive reflection rather than self-loathing. He hasn’t engaged

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in any attempts at grasping on to ontological security.

Inquiry rooted in the position that the mind is innately meliorative posits that fully

realized dasein is within us and around us and needs only to be accepted to come into Being.

Existential consciousness allows for the emergence of an awareness of our ability to transcend

our inner sense of dis-ease by simply shifting the direction of our thoughts and having

confidence in the truth of our capacity for achieving ontological security. Cessation, redirection

or chemical placation of the contents of our consciousness is absolutely a choice we can engage

in --- this position is at the heat of this work. For Dalton as for Heidegger, then, the methods used

to deal with the anxieties that are at the core of his Being involved being fully present and

grappling with the dark side; destruction is irrefutably a cause and impetus for coming into

Being. To use his mind as a meliorative tool, Dalton must find his unique cognitive style and

utilize that pathway to change his relationship with these core conflicts. For example, presuming

rational thought and intellect are his proclivities, recognizing the inherently flawed idea that he is

of no worth, that his is socially ineffective and that his finite biological existence cannot be

imbued with meaning can be very simply refuted.

For further illustration of the methods for combating these foundational existential

dialectics, I will now turn my attention to breaking down to their foundational premises the

purposefully chosen destructive end of each of the core crises. In the case of Dalton, there is an

inability to move past the negative end of the spectrum, deflated self-concept and poor

relationship with thanotos. Using Being versus nothingness as the strongest example, Dalton’s

recklessness and ingestion of chemicals in an effort to silence his negative self-talk and facilitate

the emergence of positive emotions and a level of comfort with connecting with others

previously foreign to him is rooted in the below argument presented in standard form:

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My consciousness has the capacity for contemplation of the void, making conclusions

about it and to what extent it is a threat.

If in the event unknown adulterants ingested result in the death of my biological body and

my Being fades to nothingness, the form of that nothingness will not cause suffering.

My Being is fractured beyond repair.

∴ ambivalent destructive existence is justifiable.

Distilling Dalton’s behavior makes clear the absurdity and lack of justification for this mode of

Being in the world. There is no logical flow and the premises do not follow from one another.

Transformations of Being and transcendence is very easy to find biographical and anecdotal

evidence for, hence his third premise holds no weight. A similar approach of distillation to a set

of premises and refutation would be used for the other paradoxes of interest. One can now fully

imagine the methods of this discipline as it relates to the study of consciousness; the heuristic

process of expounding on the language used to describe inner psychic state and then relating

these states to themes and crises of existentialism is the primary method used. In putting into

words some internal mode of consciousness, existential methods are able to improve an

individuals ability to live and be in the world.

Neuroscience’s disciplinary methodologies. Clearly and distinctly apart from the

qualitative methods of the previous two disciplines discussed in this chapter are the instruments

utilized in the labs and discussed in the Journal of Neuroscience Methods. Rather than the

attempts at systematically pulling out descriptive data about the psyche, neuroscience utilizes

objective, quantifiable measures of brain function at both the micro and macro level. Herein,

then I will provide a succinct overview of the basics of neuroscientific instruments so we may

become more fully aware of their application in the search for the neural correlates of

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consciousness. The nature of these instruments as correlative and useful in the cross-

disciplinarity inquiries that are central to this work shall be an integral and interwoven element

of this line of inquiry.

Electroencephalogram

The basic physiology of neuronal cells involves excitation, conduction and propagation

of electrical activity throughout neural pathways; individual neuronal cells may have thousands

of axonal connections and send electrical signals along the white fibers to the synaptic cleft. In

this way messages are distributed throughout the central and peripheral nervous system (Laureys

& Tononi, 2009). The electrical activity of the brain [the electroencephalogram (EEG)] is

recorded from electrodes placed on the scalp. The potential difference between pairs of

electrodes on the scalp (bipolar derivation) or between individual scalp electrodes and a

relatively inactive common reference point (referential derivation) is amplified and displayed on

a computer monitor, oscilloscope, or paper. The characteristics of the normal EEG depend on the

patient's age and level of arousal (Aminoff, 2012). The rhythmic activity normally recorded

represents the postsynaptic potentials of vertically oriented pyramidal cells of the cerebral cortex

and is characterized by its frequency. In normal awake adults lying quietly with the eyes closed,

an 8- to 13-Hz alpha rhythm is seen posteriorly in the EEG, intermixed with a variable amount of

generalized faster (beta) activity (>13 Hz); the alpha rhythm is attenuated when the eyes are

opened. During drowsiness, the alpha rhythm is also attenuated; with light sleep, slower activity

in the theta (4–7 Hz) and delta (<4 Hz) ranges becomes more conspicuous The use of the EEG is

primarily as a diagnostic instrument in the detection of such pathologic states such as seizures,

brain tumors, sleep disturbances and encephalitis (Aminoff, 2012). In the practice of

anesthesiology and administration of associated drugs of sedation (propofol and general

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anesthetics), EEGs are a key instrument in the measurement of levels of arousal; and its

measures are simply a quantitative assessment of the microvolts per second generated by cortical

structures. The correlate to conscious experience is thought to be the degree of arousal. While

there is no doubt that pathologies like narcolepsy, insomnia and other disorders of arousal inhibit

the capacity for the mind to remain focused, quantifying the mind’s level of arousal and

assessing the qualitative aspects (colors of imagined images, memories from an individual’s life

brought to the forefront of attention and other bits of datum from our vast long term memory

stores) is far from precise (Aminoff, 2012).

MRI

Magnetic resonance imagery is, as it names implies, based upon magnetic excitation of

the tissues of the brain and subsequent generation of detailed images of brain structures (Ajtai,

Lindzen, & Masdeu, 2012). Gross anatomic images are generated in this way to identify tumors,

white fiber connectivity damage as well as abnormalities in the circulation of cerebrospinal fluid.

My own MRI, taken after visual side effects emerged in response to a prescription for low dose

Adderall I was on three years ago revealed no gross abnormalities. Correlating what is seen on

these sorts of images to objectives measure of

cognition and intelligence as well as subjective

measures of emotionality is not possible; rather the

gross organization of brain tissue, venous and arterial

flow and white fiber conduction of signals is

achieved via MRI imagery.

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CT Scan

Computerized tomography or computer-assisted tomography is a tool used for visualizing

the anatomic features of a cross section of the human body. It creates two-dimensional images of

a cross section of brain tissue via the reliance of differential absorption of x-rays in brain tissues.

Its use is as a diagnostic tool in medicine for the detection of inflammatory processes, blood

brain barrier damage and malignant tumors. Visualization of the vasculature of the brain is also

facilitated via CT scanning equipment. In this way an embolus at risk for causing stroke can be

detected and surgically or chemically removed (Aminoff, 2012).

Micro

At the level of individual neurons in brain nuclei procedures exists for measuring

chemotaxis (chemically stimulated movement of cells or cell parts) and the production, release

and uptake of neurotransmitters. The data obtained via techniques at the micro individual

neuronal level are correlative to diseases of the brain known to cause a rapid decline in

cognition, immobility and seizures including dementia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Cross-disciplinary standards for knowledge production.

The methods and discourse across the philosophical literature construct justified positions

in support of orientations relative to abstract conceptual frames of reference; existential discourse

tackles question about that which inherently troubles the psyche and affects the unfolding of our

life and the erratic movements we make therein; neuroscience’s methods have correlates of a

largely medical nature and are equipped to identify gross deformities and disease.

What requires consideration, then, is what a cross-disciplinary standard for knowledge

production might look like. One cannot haphazardly or arbitrarily juxtapose an empirically

verified neuroimage to inform our understanding of the etiology of existential crises. The idea of

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reliability of instrumentation refers to the extent to which an instrument or test actually measures

what it is intended to measure --- that is to say, does an MRI actually give an image of the

anatomic locale of interest, does heuristic analysis of some aspects of experience produce data

about an individual’s rich inner life that is veridical with what is actually going on in the psyche.

These sorts of questions concerning reliability increase the rigor and generalizability of the

findings in a discipline. Repetition, testing and retesting a method increases the degree to which

an instrument is reliable. I will propose, therefore, that only in instances wherein this level of

rigor has been established can the conclusions from any of the fields discussed in this work be

used to inform the knowledge gaps in another – that is to say, a heuristic account of something

like existential anxiety related to our increasing awareness of the proximity of death meets the

standard of rigor that is an implicit part of the annals of neuroscience if and only if the data

contained therein has been gathered with standardized methods across a large, representative

population; that is to say, unification of the data marks of neuroscience and heuristic research

requires ensuring the criteria for rigor has been used in both data sets effectively.

The specific data points to which I refer will, of course vary depending on which question

I am addressing. For example, in addressing the philosophical frame useful for navigating dread

and anxiety, concluding data points can only be combined if the particular standard for rigor has

been used in both disciplines: that is to say, only if soundness and reason in argument

construction is used can a philosophical conclusion be used to address an existential problem the

nature of which has been heuristically verified in a rigorous way.

A cross-disciplinary epistemological framework employed in this work to address the

aforementioned foundational questions, then, maintains a very high standard for knowledge

production and only draws upon work that answers those problems if that standard for rigor is

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met. The premises regarding human universals applies to the construction of this sort of frame

similarly applies to the principles of logic --- given a set of premises an individual of reasonable

intelligence would be immediately compelled to think through these premises and come to a

similar conclusion about their degree of soundness, flow and applicability to a given situation.

The Conceptual Spectrum of Definition

Thousands of years of human history has not yet yielded a philosopher who has been able

to construct an argument with premises convincing and irrefutable enough to forever silence all

the dissenting voices. This is due primarily to the malleability of linguistic interpretation that

allows for endless debates among philosopher; an equally important quandary in consciousness

researcher and mind philosophers is the lack of operationalization --- that is to say, there is no

metric, empirical devise that can measure some tangible emission that follows our rich inner life

in a predictable and repeatable way. Empirical measure of brain activity can only be correlated to

internal phenomenal states to the extent that those states are reportable within the confines of

subjective linguistic meme. So naturally there remains a very broad array of manners in which

consciousness has been defined. I shall proceed here, then, by providing the basic premises of

these definitions, propose my position with respect to these premises, and end by delineating the

aspects of the position I find the most defensible. As one of the primary organizational principles

of this work is the extent to which an intellectual frame in one area informs the dilemmas of

another, wherein each of the competing frameworks is described I will include its potential to aid

in things like ontological security and meaning construction. The below table summarizes the

various orientations and precedes more lengthy explication of the core tenants and premises:

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Substance dualism Substance monism

Cartesian dualism (Nathan, 2011) • The mental realm is a causally distinct

ghost in the machine. • There exists an ectoplasmic realm. • The body is a vessel in which the self

or soul is housed.

Naturalistic dualism (Chalmers, 1991) • Mind arises from, is dependent on and

composed of the biological materials (neurons, axons, neurotransmitters, electrical signals)

• Mind supervenes on biological processes

• Causality is two ways with respect to genetically prescribed bio activity and intentional though prescribed mind activity.

Panpsychism (Blackmore, 2012, Seager, 2012) • Lower physical realms from which

consciousness arises cannot give a higher form of mentation of they do not possess mental processes themselves.

• Mentality is fundamental and ubiquitous.

• Physical is ontologically and epistemologically dependent on the mental (idealism).

• The entire universe is a mental entity (holistic panpsychism)

Materialistic Physicalism (Dennett, 1991; 2007).

• Mind arises, from, is dependent on and composed of biological materials.

• Mind is subservient to deterministic biological processes.

• Causality is one way with respect to genetically prescribed bio activity and mind.

• Inclusive of identity theory (mental and physical states are equivalent)

Panprotopsychism (Byme, 2007) • Consciousness arises from the totality

of smaller subservient mental properties coming together in an orchestrated, cohesive mental structure.

• All the smaller neuronal, chemical and physical elements of the universe have simplistic mental properties and rudimentary capacities for processing.

Epiphenomenalism (Huxley, 1895; Staudacher, 2006)

• Mind arises from is dependent upon and composed of biological materials.

• Causality is unidirectional and mind cannot supervene on physical brain

• Mentality is a parallel byproduct of physicality.

Property dualism (Onof, 2008; Zimmerman,

2010). • Phenomenal properties (qualia) have

primacy in our understanding of mentality.

• The biophysical from which consciousness arises has physical properties (mass, inertia, electrochemical hertz/conductivity) and mental properties (varieties of emotions, reason and thought)

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Metaphysical pluralism (Ryle, 1949)

• Rejection of the dualistic split of reality to physical and mental. • Ontological possibilities (modes of the projection of consciousness in the world in

varieties of modes of Being) are multi-dimensional. • Epistemological permissiveness with respect to perception and construction of reality.

Deductively concluding that the orientation with respect to philosophy of mind is the

most defensible position requires first utilizing the methods for reconstruction previously

outlined. Drawing upon major examples of literature that attempt to justify the positions noted in

the above table, I will proceed in this section by outlining the premises that both implicitly and

explicitly support these frames and evaluating their degree of soundness. Premises on the ability

of consciousness to access data about the world, corporeality and spirituality will be outlined in

clear and logical fashion. It is essential in our consideration of the premises of the spectrum of

school of thought here to consider the implicit and explicit assertions about reality that are an

unavoidable part of these viewpoints. The materialistic frame sees reality as largely governed by

a set of physical and biological laws and hence precipitate the exponential amplification of

existential anxiety; that is to say, they make the unfolding of our life seem entirely preordained,

fatalistic and beyond our conscious control. Anxiety related to a sense of environmental pressure

and loss of control is the result of this frame.

Varieties of philosophically dualistic definitions.

It is quite justified to begin this discussion with the archaic split between mind and body

immortalized in the word of Rene Descartes, who spoke of the split between thinking things and

extended things. In the Cartesian frame, the most definitive features of Being human is our

capacity for thought and there is a property of our thinking that provides us with evidence of

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Being. In one of his foundational works, Discourse on Method, part four we find the following

infamous argument:

Next I examined attentively what I was. I saw that while I could pretend that I had no

body and that there was no world and no place for me to be in, I could not for all that

pretend that I did not exist. I saw on the contrary that from the mere fact that I thought of

doubting the truth of other things, it followed quite evidently and certainly that I existed;

whereas if I had merely ceased thinking, even if everything else I had ever imagined had

been true, I should have had no reason to believe that I existed. From this I knew I was a

substance whose whole essence or nature is simply to think, and which does not require

any place, or depend on any material thing, in order to exist. Accordingly this “I”—that

is, the soul by which I am what I am—is entirely distinct from the body, and indeed is

easier to know than the body, and would not fail to be whatever it is, even if the body did

not exist (Descartes 1637 as cited in Roth, 1937 p. 77)

One can reconstruct the premises implied as follows:

Consciousness when engaged the self-reflexive act of thinking about consciousness

produces generalizable knowledge about consciousness.

The directability of the mental realm refutes its reduction to the deterministic physical

realm.

Thoughts produce being and being supersedes extended things (cogito, ergo sum).

The clear and distinct nature of the act of thinking refutes its placement in the physical

realm.

∴ mind and body are clearly and distinctly separate substances

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Following the aforementioned disciplinary procedure, we must clarify and assess the degree of

truth for each of these assertions. The first premise is sound and underlies every sentence penned

in this thesis; hence there is no necessity to refute it. The second premise attempts to refute

reduction by asserting that the mind lack causal connection to the body; within this premise lies

the erroneous assertion that mind and biology are not inextricably linked and interdependent.

While we can direct out thoughts and engage in a circular interdependence with our biology, this

does not support the strong refutation of reduction implied in the cogito. The fifth premise

seems to assert an anti-physicalist position which contains several suppressed premises

including: (1) that reality is not entirely composed in subatomic particles and waves, (2) that the

strong force, weak force and electromagnetism are not the manifestations of the power of the

mind, (3) that the mind, the contents of which are rooted in the sequelae of our perceptions has a

existence separate from those biological apparatuses of sensation and perception.

The degree of precision with which are now able to use objective neuroscientific measure

to visualize the pathways between the hemispheres mediated by the corpus collosum and

between nuclei (the thalamus and pre-frontal cortex especially) was not fully realized in the time

of this proposed Cartesian split. The Cartesian theatre is founded on this idea implicit in the

aforementioned premises that the observer or internal recipient of the visual, gustatory, tactile,

sensory and emotional world and director of the mind idea can operate independent of biological

structures. This suppressed premise along with the lack of specificity regarding nature of a

“soul” or “spirit” that thinks, emotes and has intentions invalidates the cogito. Intentionality is

not the unseen ectoplasmic hands of the puppeteer controlling by some unknown modality of

connection between mind and body the inner workings and connectivity between neuronal cells.

Exocytosis (release) of neurotransmitter and the thoughts and internal states that go along with

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that are the result of action potentials (electrical activity); and while we can indeed propose that

the stimulation and propagation of this electrical activity occurs due to intentionally directed

thoughts, the Cartesian split does not provide any cross culturally and universal conception of a

soul that transcends religiosity; indeed, variance in religiosity is if anything a refutation against

the existence of the soul. There is only one true reality out there we access with our faculties of

critical thought.

More contemporary literature (Nathan, 2011) out of the Royal Institute of Philosophy

necessitates textual analysis and distillation to its foundational premises using the methods

discussed in the previous section. It is highly representative of the sort of discourse in the

unnaturally dualistic realm --- unnatural in the sense that a non-tangible part of reality is

proposed to be constitutively correlative with consciousness. This sort of relationship has to be

irrefutably proven with solid logic in order for a framework to be accepted. I will proceed here to

closely evaluate Mr. Nathan’s propose extracting the core premises that are implied and

evaluating their degree of soundness and utility in addressing the cross-disciplinary points of

interest. Consider first the following:

You have a body, but you are a soul or self. Without your body, you could still

exist. Your body could be and perhaps is outlasted by the immaterial substance

which is your soul or self. Thus the substance dualist. Most substance dualists are

Cartesians. The self, they suppose, is essentially conscious: it cannot exist unless

it thinks or wills or has experiences. In this paper I sketch out a different form of

substance dualism. I suggest that it is not consciousness but another immaterial

feature which is essential to the self, a feature in one way analogous to a non-

dispositional taste (Nathan, 2011, p. 201)

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Here analysis gleans two premises that are core to the argument Nathan attempts to make.

The first fundamental premise is that immaterial stuff exists; that is to say, atoms, protons,

neutrons, electrons, gluons and the stuff of physics is not all there is to the knowable world. The

second the epistemological scope of what we are capable of knowing extends beyond sensory

information entering our biological bodies. Further on in this work he presents prose that points

to another premise foundational to his argument:

What then are selves, according to the non-Cartesian substance dualist? They

are immaterial, in the sense of not spatially extended. An alternative criterion of

immateriality is supplied by the principle that a feature is material if and only if it

is one to his possession of which the possessor has no privileged access. I abjure

that criterion because I want to leave open the possibility that selves have neither

privileged nor unprivileged epistemic access to them as they are in themselves,

and can but speculate about their noumenal nature. Selves are praised or blamed

neither for the thoughts which strike them nor for the experiential contents which

are presented to them. But they are praised or blamed for their volitions, for their

decisions and other acts of will (p. 209)

Here we the have premises that speak of the nature of the self; namely that the self is

clearly and distinctly separate from the corporeal, spatial body. There is also the implied premise

that the free decisions we make posits or suggests the existence of extramaterial substance --- or

put another way --- the act of deliberation cannot be reduced to neuronal connections. So from

these representative excerpts we have, distilled to standard form the following argument:

The existence of the self in all its uniqueness and distinctness is evidence of aspects of

the sensible world beyond the stuff of chemistry and physics.

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The data the self receives about the world is has physical substrates and extramaterial

substrates.

The epistemological scope of consciousness is extramaterial.

The act of deliberation occurs in a self apart from the biological correlates of the mind.

∴ the mind is a separate substance from the body.

While it is undoubtable that awareness of a nonphysical mind provide some level of comfort and

aid in the resolution of anxieties and fear of death, this un-naturally dualistic argument does not

logically follow. The task that is of foremost importance in textual analysis of arguments in

standard form is to identify any points of ambiguity clarity with further discussion. The idea that

the self is unique and distinct from the physical world posits the existence of some observer or

being that although linked to the biological body is separate from it.

The self has various contrasting definitions in literature, but what is unequivocal and

irrefutable is that the self ceases to exist upon the advanced stages of development of

neurofibliary tangles --- that is to say, extract or disrupt the flesh of the brain and the

nuclei and structures that give rise to the mind also cease to exist. Self consists of the

memories of our life course held in our hippocampus and the manipulation of them our

executive pre-frontal brain mediates. These memories from our lives color the sort of

internal experience we have in response to a individual source of sensory data; indeed,

the olfactory sensory cascade is intimately linked with memory and results in a rich,

internal secondary processing of this data. Furthermore, the premise on the scope of

channels or modes from which the basic datum of the world are derived also has no

validity --- to sense with one’s spirit is an unreliable, ambiguous, subjective and

emotional modality of interpreting the world. As noted in my ruminations on cross-

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disciplinary standards for knowledge production, rigor is essential. To abandon rigor is to

produce infinitely variable gobbledygook. Based on these inherent fallacies, I shall not

utilize this frame and move on to textual analysis of the next framework of interest.

Moving along to the final dualistic frame we have two similar schools of thought:

panpsychism and panprotopsychism. As they both contain a common foundational premise of

interest for the purpose of this work and a difference I do not regard as highly significant, I will

not evaluate them separately. The assertion within that sets it apart is primarily the idea of

smaller, less complete “microconsciousnesses” from which the total cohesive structure of mind

arises. Everything from complex biological apparatuses to subatomic particles the universe

cannot be constitutively correlative with consciousness if they do not possess unto themselves

some sort of rudimentary mental property. The prototypical prose derived from Karman (2012)

from which premises shall be gleaned appears below:

Panpsychism is the view … there exists a first person perspective or experience for

humans, bonobos, sing-celled organisms, electrons, etc…Quantum mechanics the most

supported physical theory, is full of counterintuitive claims about the world. One of

many peculiar results of the double-slit experiment (widely considered to be the most

famous experiment in quantum mechanics) is that electrons change their properties

when we measure them in different ways. If we measure the electrons before they

pass through the slits, the electrons behave like waves. But, when we observe the

electrons after they have passed through the slits, they behave like waves. The

simple act of observing electrons changes their fundamental nature! [he further

explicates his premises]:

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(1) Consciousness is a real phenomenon.

(2) Consciousness is not physical.

(a) Chalmers’ zombie argument.

(b) Chalmers’ inverted spectrum argument.

(c) Strawson’s linguistic argument.

(d) The knowledge argument [neuroscientists Mary]

(3) ; Consciousness must either be intrinsic to the physical or emergent from it.

(4) Consciousness cannot be emergent.

(5) ; Consciousness must be intrinsic.

∴Panpsychism (Karman, 2012, p. 233).

These premises are founded on the observation that although consciousness has a

correlate with the spatial reality (he does not assert a ghost in the machine), the currently

accepted descriptive frameworks in science do not have the capability to account for the

deliberative and conscious properties observed in quantum indeterminacy. From particles, to

molecules, organelles, single cells all the way up to a cohesive human brain, mind is evidently

present; he furthermore notes that the evidence from experiences supports the notion that

although the mind arises from a mass of grey and white matter, it “cannot be described by

science” (Karman, 2012, p 234).

He continues by noting that he categorization of consciousness as nonphysical is based

upon purely a linguistic and semantic issue --- namely that terms like “particles, electrons,

quarks, neurotransmitters, ATP consumption” and other labels scientists apply to empirical

observations of the physical do not account for the subjectivity and internally derived evidence

from experience. The appeal to the knowledge argument and Stawsons linguistic argument (a

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frame of reference that asserts that essentially linguistic agreement about qualia does not prove

internal experiential correlation) further support his assentation that consciousness is a distinct

from the physical. Another way to summarize this argument is as follows:

Consciousness is a biologically derived and spatial property of reality that is experienced

in an internal Cartesian theatre.

The internal experiential realm is clear and distinctly separate from the external, objective

and scientifically descriptive realm.

Lines of linguistic descriptive qualitative data about that which is on the Cartesian stage

is epistemologically distinct from the physical realm from which the data is derived.

∴ Consciousness is nonphysical and ubiquitous.

This appeal to the primacy of phenomenal knowledge as evidence of the distinct nature

consciousness has several problems. Karman notes the impossibility of any attempt to categorize

consciousness as derived from a distinct sort of basic substance of the universe by submitting to

the issue of how the immaterial could possibly be causally connected to the material realm; his

most fundamental assertions, then are twofold: (1) that consciousness is distinct simply in the

sense that we use a different sense of vocabulary to describe its states and (2) intentional

thoughts and behaviors can be attributed to lesser organisms and particles of the universe. This

position fails on several accounts. First of all he does not provide anything close to an adequate

account of the core conceptual idea of “first person perspective”, an idea on which panpsychism

is founded. Human experience and perspective upon the theatre of our mind, he admits, is

mediated by neurobiological processes; it arises from cerebral and prefrontal broadcast of data

that reaches the thalamus from the various sensory nervous pathways. Hence if one defines,

appropriately, first person perspective as the secondary receipt in consciousness of waves and

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particies from the world or internally derived memories and emotions than panpsychism is false.

Put more formally:

To be conscious is to have internally derived thoughts

Internally derived thoughts arise from a first person perspective

First person perspectives requires secondary processing of the physical data of the world

by our socio-emotional-intellectual apparatus

The SEIA requires biological completeness in the human organism and application of

abstract human principles.

Less complete biological organisms, matter, molecules and particles cannot possess an

SEIA

∴ Panpsychism is false.

The avoidance of the core issue of intentionally and the use of complex human constructs we

associate with consciousness and purposely directed behavior, then, is an adequate reason to not

accept this version of the panpsychist position. His additional lack of descriptive data about the

first person experiential realm (another concept that rests upon a cohesive web of neuronal somas

and axons) and rationale for attributing it to the lower realm of electrons makes the position

indefensible.

The range of perspectives among the dualists, panpsychists and other perspectives

reviewed in this section have been presented and distilled to core argumentative presuppositions

in a manner that supports that position that the reach we as humans have into reality cannot

extend further than that which touches our biological tools of data collection and capacity for

intellectualization. The idea of being constitutively correlative is key to my assertions about from

whence consciousness comes and refers to the idea that there are contents of consciousness, or

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the SEIA, that are invariable and present across the minds of all of humanity. The constitution of

consciousness involves its biological substrates (brain nuclei, neurotransmitters, white fibers and

also most notably the scope of language we use to encapsulate qualia). Any human that licks a

poisonous toad will experience the qualia of bitterness; hence it can be said that for this

etiological locus from whence qualia arises there is an invariable and universal constitutive

correlation. Stick a hot needle in someone’s eye and, again, writhing pain can be said to be

constitutively correlative with that source of experience. Spirit is not by any stretch of the

imagination constitutively correlative due to its degree of variability; seldom do the proponents

of a spiritual perspective (whether it be from a more source that is more formalized such as

institutional religion or a personal understanding of spirit) provide well-structured arguments for

the basic substance of reality. There is a certain solace and intellectually lazy comfort derived by

having confidence in the truth of the spirit, but its very existence defies verifiability.

The cohesive biological machine that is inarguably the generator of the precursors to first

person perspectives is a physical entity whose constitution cannot be argued to lie beyond the

realm of organic carbon based molecules and organelles that consume adenosine triphosphate,

propagate electrical signals to orchestrate the coordinated movements of the human machine

produce all that we think and feel. Biochemical descriptions of these processes of metabolism

and electrochemical communication use a different set of terms then, naturally, the variable and

subjective phenomenal realm --- of that there is no doubt; however this does not provide any

support for any of the types of dualism described here. A rose by any other name, however

sweet, colorful and having the potential to be the impetus for the emergence of a memory of a

love affair from one’s lifetime, is still at its essence a machine composed of an ATP-burning

chloroplast, mitochondria and nucleus. Variable phenomenal properties make consciousness

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unique and add richness to the experience of life – they do not, however, support the existence of

ghosts. In this section on several accounts and in a variety of ways I have refuted a conception of

reality rooted in spirits, souls, spooks and the various other intangible and imperceptible

elements of the universe. It behooves me to include few remarks on the implications of the

characterization of reality as not existing beyond the confines of the fundamental particles of

physics; specifically I must address how a physicalist characterization of reality might assist in

the melioration or intensification of existential anxieties. Here we must remember that the impact

such a perception of reality has on considerations of an existential nature is dependent upon the

degree to which such a perception supports fatalism or the notion that we have no conscious

control and are but finite, ornate well-decorated and loud robots following a set of carbon-based

instructions within our DNA. To discount the spiritual realm is not by any stretch of the

imagination to propose that the movements of the mind are fatalistic; on the contrary the

conception of mind discusses herein provides a much higher degree of support for its strength.

Varieties of materialistic substance monistic definitions

Given the lack of support for the widening of the epistemological scope beyond that

which touches our sensory organs, we are left by process of elimination with one of the several

lines of reasoning in support of a single substance from which the mind arises and is entirely

dependent. Implied in these lines of argument, as with the dualistic varieties is that

metacognitively derived knowledge about consciousness can be logically generalized. I have also

up to this point attempted to explicate the phenomenal as not as issue of substantive difference

with respect to the physical but rather merely one of the verbiage used to describe the

experiential --- phenomenal variability except in the few universals (toad poison) reduces the

usefulness of that realm. Herein, then, the causally closed and deterministic frame of Dennett and

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the more open perspective of Chalmers where the efficacy of intentionality shall be contrasted,

distilled to premises and analyzed. The resultant necessity to submit to the truth of property

dualism will be what remains at the end of this discussion.

As noted, the primarily line of differentiation between the work of Chalmers who

famously penned his The Conscious Mind (1996) in response perhaps to Dennett’s

Consciousness Explained (1991) lies in the degree of certitude the authors have in the a few core

concepts (the premises of which I’ll explicate); they include: (1) supervenience or the capability

of intentional thought to supervene or have deterministic power over a property, (2) reducibility

or the casually subservient relationship between consciousness and physicality or biology, (3) the

primary and categorically distinct nature of mental properties and (4) the distinctness and

epistemological importance of qualia.

With respect to the first, Chalmers (1996) provides the following formal conditional

statement for our consideration:

B-properties supervene on A-properties if no two possible situations are identical with

respect to their A-properties while differing in their B-properties…this happens when the

same clusters of A-properties in our world are always accompanied by the same B-

properties and when this correlation is not just coincidental but lawful; that is, when

instantiating the A-properties will always bring about the B-properties” (Chalmers, 1996,

p. 33).

This relationship implies the co-occurrence of two properties. It along with the knowledge

argument, he asserts, provides ample evidence against reductive explanations. It also supports

the premises he outlines for his “naturalistic dualism” which refutes materialism on the grounds

that: (1) conscious events exists, (2) one can imagine a consciousness-free zombie or world in

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which physicality is identical but consciousness is absent (3) conscious facts are over and above

physical facts (Chalmers, 1996).

While I submit to the lawful, immutable and irrefutable relationship between the mental

realm and the psychical realm, the naturalistic dualism of Chalmers is not entirely satisfying for a

number of reasons. His characterization of the idea of mind’s potential to supervene is much too

weak and non-specific with respect to what biophysical processes mind is cable of supervening

over. A mechanism for how the mind may supervene is also lacking in his work. Furthermore,

the idea of bidirectional causality, alluded to in my poetic aside, is not as explicit in his version

of supervenence as it ought to be. To be subservient to as opposed to supervenient implies

unidirectional causuality. For example if in the event the release of a neurotransmitter is

subservient to the instructions transcribed from a DNA sequence and if thoughts, feelings and

emotions are entirely subservient to the concentration of those neurotransmitters in the synaptic

cleft, then consciousness does not supervene over the biological. A modified and more

appropriate version of Chalmers supervenience that I will allude to in my work would look,

therefore like this:

B-properties supervene on A-properties if and only if in the event their co-occurrence is

axiomatically lawful and B-property has a bidirectionally causal relationship to A-

property.

Extending this to the specific process I noted we could rephrase this to say: depression (B-

property) supervenes on A-property (vesicular release of serotonin (SE) into the synaptic cleft)

in the sense that depression exists only when transcription dictates SE release; further the

conscious vessel in which depression occurs can intentionally override or supervene on the bio

property that it is causually related to. I along with other notable authors Strong (2010) and Little

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(2002) support the neuroplastic evidence as supporting a much stronger version of supervenience

than Chalmers does. Addiction, major depression temporal lobe epilepsy (Strong, 2010) --- none

of these conditions, largely thought of by the medical community to be causal and

insurmountable obstacles can conquer the strength of the correlate of our intentions.

And a rose, no one would doubt, by any other name has something fundamentally that it

is like to be as sweet as a rose is; and a unique pattern of association, interpretation and linguistic

interpretation of that rose is unique and infinitely variable. This variability in what it is like to

have a gustatory, tactile, olfactory other sensory experience is at the heart of my view of the most

accurate definition of qualia and for Chalmers but emphatically not for Dennett supports the

unique category of the aspects and datum of consciousness; naturally, and I will later

demonstrate neurologically, qualia ought to be defined as case by case variance in the processing

and association cascade involved in the higher order receipt of sensory data. It is notable,

however to point out that variance in the memories from the life course in an individual who

experience the sweetness of a rose does not imply that the rose out there in the world has any

substantive variance. Photons hitting rod and cone cells to change rhodopsin (etymologically

derived from ‘rose’ incidentally) to a nerve impulse have no material difference whatsoever;

qualia must, therefore, be correlated and associated with a very specific point along the sensory

processing cascade at which subjective variance occurs. For Chalmers, qualia are related to the

functional organization of the brain and have case-by-case variation due primarily to differences

in the organization of the brain; this is intuitive: memories from one’s life course are quite

permanently etched into our hippocampus.

The counterpoint to all of these dualistic musings posit that qualia are disqualified on the

grounds that phenomenal knowledge is clearly identical to its neuronal substrates (Mary doesn’t

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learn anything new when she leaves her black box). He also attempts to discount the importance

of variance in the private experience of qualia. What is lacking in this model and attempt at

refuting the importance of qualia is any attempt at definition. Consciousness Explained is replete

in its chapter on the disqualification of qualia with anecdotes about Mary and thought

experiments about the hypothetical inversion of qualia by evil neuroscientists that alter the

sensory processing cascade by redirecting neural circuits. It is intuitive and self-evident that if

one changes the circuitry of the recipient neuron of the color green, what it is like or the qualia of

green will change for that individual. However, what will not change is the tertiary pattern of

association. A rose by any other color due to the onset of color blindness is latter life, will still

have a subjective association with a memory; what it is like to experience the color and

sweetness of a rose for an individual lost in rumination of a love affair is at the heart of what

qualia is all about.

As a “qualophile” as Dennett calls them, I support the existence of variation in the rich

inner life his deterministic model of heterophenomenology attempts to outline. It is not clear

from his work what version of qualia he is attempting to refute; proposing a definition of qualia

as follows, its truth and irrefutability is clear: qualia are the tertiary, subjective experience of

what it is like to have some sensory experience in the rich and unique inner life of an individual

given the idiosyncratic associative patterns of communication among the neurological correlates

of sensation and perception; qualia, then, are correlated with pattern of brain region connectivity

and pattern of emergence of memory and inner emotional life that is associated with what it is

like to have a sensory experience.

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Substance Monistic Property Dualism

Keeping in mind the aforementioned premises relative to the nonexistence of ghosts,

importance of intentionally directed consciousness and the categorically distinct nature of mental

properties, we are now prepared to consider the only remaining reasonable position: a version of

property dualism that retains some of the elements of Chalmers model with a greater focus on the

linguistically primary quality of the mental realm. The preeminence of scruples and methods of

science and the rigorous epistemology of the eyeballs inherent in that knowledge producing

frame is the scaffold on which this model is built; and while maintaining this high scientific

standard for knowledge production this model maintains acknowledgement of the usefulness of

the systemic and rigorous collection of qualitative heuristic data. The way in which I

characterized qualia as basically secondary association of biological processing of the sensory

world is an element of this philosophical frame (subsequent sections will provide further

explication of biological processes and their correlates with qualia). There is, indeed, something

that is like to smell or sense a rose; however that subjective experience is nothing other than the

unique post-thalamic pattern of neuronal association that following the receipt of a sensory

datum from the various biological structures that receive pollen, photons and the other sources of

information about the world.

Although variable in support for physicalism, the position that the universe is composed

of nothing beyond the element of the period table and their constituent, what is common among

all versions of property dualism is the idea that sentience or the mental realm is categorically

distinct from the physical realm. In the model I will propose, the mental realm is entirely

dependent on the biophysical realm; mental properties arise from and are utterly dependent upon

brain chemistry, action potentials and the activity and connectivity of neuronal cells. However,

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the previously outlined and modified version of Chalmer’s supervenience is applied in a manner

that adds credence and strength to the position that the biophysical realm has mental properties

(mind) and physical properties (Boyle’s law, conservation of energy, osmosis, diffusion and so

on). The primary difference I will support, which stems from the aforementioned definition is

that physical properties are unidirectionally causal whereas mental properties are bidirectionally

causal. Thoughts arise from axonal connections; however intention drives the process of making

new branches and connections and hence changes the SEIA in a marked and significant way.

Distilled and formalized to basic contentions, this version of property dualism can be expressed

in the following two arguments:

The sensible world is composed of electrons, neutrons, protons, molecules and the larger

systems of molecules from which biological organisms arise.

The organs of perception receive physical data about the world.

The epistemological scope of consciousness is material.

∴ substance monism

Physical properties such as diffusion are causally closed and the particles that follow the

laws that are derived from these properties have no power to affect the process.

Neuroplasticity and recovery is driven by intention.

Mental properties are shaped by intentionality, are causally open and supervene upon the

physical.

∴ property dualism

This specialized version of dualism, rooted in support for the physical correlate of willpower has

tremendous applicability to the existentialism to be expounded in the section that follows.

Indeed, one could clearly see how placing a large amount of credence into the effectiveness of

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the conscious choices we make to change neurophysiology would meliorate the existential

vertigo that follows the realization that we live in a godless realm and have absolute liberty to

direct our lives.

An Interdisciplinary Explication of Existential Theory

There is something within each of us that wants to self-destruct. There is a primordial

urge to turn stepping stones into stumbling blocks, to actively seek out ways in which we can

best sabotage our lives and reach a state of thanatological ecstasy3 Inherent in us also runs a

parallel capacity and drive to overcome, to evolve, grow and cultivate happiness. These

paradoxes have been variously described in the literature as meaning versus meaninglessness,

death versus life, futility versus instrumentality --- and they play out in our lives on a daily basis.

Often we find the drive to create order and sanity by utilizing our capacity for reason makes it

difficult to navigate these paradoxes by grasping onto the intangible. This aspect of the human

experience are undeniably fundamental and universal. Variations in psychopathologic diagnoses

notwithstanding; there is something fundamentally universal about having a mind situated in a

fragile human body that fosters the emergence of a consciousness with a predictable set of

longings, needs and motivations; there is an incontrovertible and intersubjectively valid truth in

these human universals.

Being cognizant of the etiology of this anxiety and can evolve to a style of consciousness

whose patterns of thought are more accepting rather than avoidant is critical. And while one is

not likely to be immediately prepared to dive in the depths of one’s self to explore these

concepts, the use of case study illumination of existential paradoxes and ascent up the ladder of

3 While the work of Stan Grof speaks at length about thanatological states as those final moments of existence right before a person is taken by death, the etymology of the word is from the Greek for “death”. Here I coin a phrase meant to point to the “death instinct” or drive towards self-immolation as the only means by which we can alleviate the agony of existence.

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consciousness and existence can provide a useful guide for self-exploration. To that end this

section shall delineate, deconstruct and take an antagonistic position against the key principles

and characteristics of the Kierkegaardian conception of the existential climbing of the proverbial

ladder towards heaven. Ascent up this ladder requires an awareness of the socially and

experientially inculcated way in which we direct our thoughts; hence it is also necessary that I

relate existential conflicts to ideas in consciousness studies. I will also separate myself from the

viewpoint that attribute conscious properties to larger systems. Having explained the rationale

for the narrowing of my viewpoint, the utility of Heidegger’s ontological perspective about

allowing the fruition of Being in the world will be revealed as the only viable existential

perspective.

Rooted in atheistic ontology

Given that my core purpose here is to situate myself within a psychological theory, I must

begin this discussion with by outlining the key components of ontology and the rationale for

aligning myself in that theoretical frame. There is a twofold literary divide among the major

historical contributors to existential theory. This division in inclusive of ontology and

metaphysics; the former include an atheistic study into the nature of beings and its roots in the

cogito and the latter posits a post-experiential element of knowing from which we are able to

access knowledge about the divine and spiritual elements of the universe. The imperative to

clarify my placement in this dichotomy is rooted primarily in the absolute liberty to direct and

take on the existential responsibility for our lives that follows from this perspective. In the latter

frame, we find a spiritual position Sartre, Heidegger and I find indefensible and not useful for the

purpose of this discussion (Hemming, 2002; Sartre, 1956, 2007). Our capacity for personally

driven transformations and purposeful construction of meaning is not fully recognized in this

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faith based model of human growth. To abandon reason and a rigorous epistemological standard

is to strip truth of any chance of universalizability. For these reasons I am instead reliant on an

individualistic ontology that informs the existential liberty at the root of my consciousness work.

The polemical and personal remarks I have here included regarding the necessity of

atheism as a justification for the absolute existential liberty that is at the heart of my theoretical

orientation provides a clear rationale for my purposeful selection of this theory above a multitude

of other possibilities. This idea I have translated to my own words regarding the atheistic roots of

existential thought has several literary points of support integration and analysis of which is

critical. Recent literary criticism analyzing the conceptual underpinnings of Heidegger’s thought

has pointed to the idea that metaphysics is something that must be overcome; indeed, the creation

of the mythology of god arises from a futile attempt to bring dasein into fruition (Hemming,

2002). This position that we have absolute responsibility for the molding of our dasein due to our

separation from God is further substantiated in the prose Sartre where we find the following

assertion of the consequence of the non-existence of god:

Atheistic existentialism, which I represent, is more coherent. It states that if god does not

exist, there is at least one being in whom existence precedes essence, a being who exists

before he can be defined by any concept, and that being is man, or as Heidegger says,

human reality…. [this] means, first of all, mean exists, turns up, appears on the scene

and, only afterwards, defines himself…thus, there is no human nature, since there is no

God to conceive it (Sartre, 1948, p 36).

Hence the refutation of the existence of god that is foundational to the subcategory of

existentialism in the work of Sarte and Heidegger is predicated on this idea that without an

omniscient godhead to define the contours of our mode of being in the world, we are left

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radically responsible for our condition; indeed, we do not internalize the mandates from God or

immortalized in sacred texts --- rather we engage in dynamic and dialectical relationship with

being unto itself and being in the world to reach a place of ontological security. The liberty to be

fully in charge of crafting the facets of our being is rooted in this godless orientation.

On the Incomprehensible Systemic Self

First we must have some sense the rationale for selecting an ontological frame rather than

one reliant on abstract metaphysics or depth psychology. Here we need to consider the important

contrast between systemic self and individualistic self-reliant self. In the latter there is an

archetypical source of our humanity --- an abstract collective mind from which we draw to come

into Being. This collectivistic ontology wherein some ill-defined mode of transmission mediates

the telepathic transmission of individual units of the psyche has no intellectual merit for several

reasons including, but not limited to: (1) the existence of immaterial mind is not empirically

verifiable and (2) categorically distinct substances and processes cannot act on each other

without a proposed mechanism for doing so (spiritual matter cannot act upon DNA transcription,

neuronal conduction and other biophysical processes) . For these reasons I am instead reliant on

an individualistic ontology best encapsulated in the below prose, which has become a mantra and

philosophy of life for myself:

All man’s [sic] alibis are unacceptable: no gods are responsible for his condition; no

original sin; no heredity and no environment; no race, no caste, no father, and no mother;

no wrong-headed education, no governess, no teacher; not even an impulse or a

disposition, a complex or a childhood trauma. Man [sic] is free... to reach above the stars

(Sarte, 1956).

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Naturally the archaic and outdated use of “man” ought to be supplanted with verbiage

that is more inclusive and pro-feminist, but that of sort thinking was not commonplace in the 50s.

Nonetheless, what we have here is a no-excuses frame of reference that puts gives the individual

unlimited control over his development. This prose was penned by the same intellectual who

famously wrote that L’existentialisme est un humanisme or Existentialism is a humanism (Sarte,

2007) – and in Sartre’s frame there is an implied rejection of materialistic, naturalistic and deistic

human systems as the source of guidance on how to direct our moral compass and live out our

lives. Man is a malleable as wet clay and we have absolute control and freedom to be virtuous;

and whereas the self-actualizing tendency of the humanistic psychologists asserts our natural

capacity to achieve our potentiality across domains such as spirit, occupation and social

instrumentality, the sense of ontological security and achievement of the potentiality of our

dasein or Being speaks of domains including: (1) creating one’s own unique theological

perspective based on a unique line of critical thought and (2) finding our rainbow or unique and

suitable direction in life to facilitate our process of becoming. Another notable contrast is that

while humanistic psychology places importance on the social interactivity that impacts the ascent

up the Maslovian ladder, the existentialists, as one would surmise from Sartre’s prose, emphasize

our absolute liberty to purposefully direct our lives. There is no such thing as a deterministic

mandate due to one’s caste that affects one’s potential to achieve a perfected state of Being

wherein we transcend our fear of death and live in a more stalwart and confident manner.

The systemic context of self notably mentioned in the literature of Kierkegaard and more

recently Richard Tarnas posits that the mind is not a phenomenon situated within us but actually

has ways to communicate thoughts beyond verbal articulation and body language. While my

“self” is indeed subject to social pressures and hence my thoughts are restricted in this way, this

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does not mean thoughts have a systemic connection. It doesn’t matter how long I stare into

someone’s eyes, I’m not going to be able to read the thought ruminating in his or her mind.

Consciousness is a phenomena utterly dependent and tied to the physical, biology and

physiology --- describing and accounting for its properties requires we go beyond

the language of science – but that does not make any less true the fact that that mind is entirely

biologically based. Brain regions that are surgically removed, chemically damaged or threatened

by neoplastic growth produce clear, distinct and measurable changes in consciousness. So where

does this leave the spirit? If micro systems such as atomic orbitals all the way up to individual

cells, organ system, neuronal circuits, families, communities, nations, ecosystems, solar

systems, planetary systems and so on are all connected, then the role we play in those can be

thought of as spiritual. Understanding the reality of how these things interact and are

interdependent gives us either since of the pointlessness of life and how minuscule and useless

each of us are --- or maybe awe, wonder and a sense of deep connection.

The choice is ours to make. That these systems think, emote and have free will is another

matter entirely. Deliberation and free choice are human constructs and require abstract human

concepts like duty, honor, values, morals. Ecosystems can’t do that – nor can the cosmos. Ursa

major does not think about the legal and moral repercussions of its actions – it just uses up

energy in a deterministic fashion.

Core Paradoxes and their Inherent Inculcation in Consciousness

The intellectual standpoint of the existentialist is that there is something about the human

condition that is fundamentally incongruous in the sense that are lives are directed by both the

false sense of invincibility as well as the truth of the matter --- that after a finite number of

divisions every cell in our body shall die along with mind that arises from the function of those

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cells. We go about our daily lives after spending our formative years exposed to various social,

familial and societal pressures to think, emote, act and live in a very circumspect fashion. This

style of living automatically and Being in the world in a manner not intrinsically imbued with

meaningfulness leaves us at a certain point (perhaps in middle age) longing to make sense of it

all.

Hence in existential theory we are persuaded via being aware and present with the

universal human anxieties within to think critically about our life path. And it is crucial for us to

consider the extent to which the cobblestones of that path were placed by happenstance or more

carefully engineered and designed to make the journey less treacherous. As we don our hiking

boots and ponder how well we prepared we are for the unexpected we endeavor to forecast the

tidal movements of the rivers and tides we come across as well as our level of preparedness for

communicating and interacting with creatures the ferocity of which we’ve no way of predicting.

And it is also key to note that the selection and placement of those cobblestones as well

of the fitting of the boots we wear in preparation for treading down that road is never done for us.

Life does not make itself meaningful and the powers and personalities that exist in the world do

not telepathically become aware of our existential needs and lay out a path for us accordingly.

Life must be fitted with a saddle, grabbed by the horns and ridden kicking and screaming with

our spurs deep in its flesh if we are to have any chance at existential resolution.

This is the core reality of the human life course and the society in which it is situated that

the existentialist implore us to contemplate and confront in order to successfully navigate the

paradoxes: those of meaning versus meaninglessness, freedom and responsibility, isolation and

desire for connection and death and striving for life (Farley, 2013). And these paradoxes ought to

be understood as not an all or nothing dichotomy wherein one’s life is wholly and completely

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overcome with death anxiety or entirely free from it. They are a complex, multi-faceted

continuum wherein the dark side is enmeshed and constantly interacts with the light. We find

again a poetic metaphor a useful point of reference with which to illuminate this interaction:

“The black stream, catching on a sunken rock, flung backward on itself in one white wave, And

the white water rode the black forever, Not gaining but not losing…” (Frost, 2003).

Indeed, the threat of isolation while in the midst of the loving bonds of matrimony is an

ever-present inspiration to act in a way that maintains those bonds. And the threat of failure and

the sense or worthlessness and meaninglessness is an ever-present motivating factor in the lives

of professionals with a penchant for dominating and aggressive behaviors. Our increasing

awareness of mortality and the proximity of death is a source of inspiration to act in a way that

makes our lives have meaning --- there can be a pervasive madness in this realization that

perhaps we were living in a manner not of our own volition but rather in a way we were

conditioned or persuaded to.

Components of Heidegger’s Existentialism

With the reasons I chose to not select the any of the psychological frames that require

faith or support for the Cartesian split in mind, we are prepared now to turn our attention to the

basic ideological elements of Heidegger’s thought. While at times he presents a relatively

simplistic premise with thrice the number of pages required, he does nonetheless broaden our

understanding of the primacy of Dasein and the way in which we can live our life to achieve

ontological security. In his prose we find a host of useful guidelines for pondering the basic

nature of Being, the mind from which it is born and the interactions between the two. Consider,

for example the following:

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thinking is of Being inasmuch as thinking, propriated [assigned] by Being, belongs to

Being…thinking is of Being insofar as thinking, belonging to Being, listens to Being

(Heidegger, 1949, p. 240)

The writings of that notoriously difficult German existentialist and phenomenologist require very

slow and careful reading and careful methods of analysis in order to draw from them any

meaningful ideas useful in applying his ideas usefully. Here we have a proposed dialectical

relationship between our self-directed thoughts and our mode of Being in the world. The purpose

of thought is not to facilitate the emergence of Being; and naturally, the extent to which thinking

is capable of doing that is dependent on the degree to which thinking is able to understand the

Being that it creates with its movements. The self-talk we engage in relative to our effectiveness

in the world level of intelligence creates a particular ontological modality; that is to say, if Being

is understood as the doing that follows our constructed self, then the thinking that paints the

colors of the self creates Being. Being is predicated in thinking, and thinking is predicated in

Being. Thinking is composed of the aforementioned trifecta of consciousness, and this trifecta is

predicated in Being --- sources and elements of existensia are interconnected in complex web.

Hence ontological existentialism is interested principally on Being modes of thought and

behavior that are related to a conception of Being as a potentiality or actuality; that is to say, we

can understand ontological security and resolution of existential anxiety as something we have a

natural aptitude to achieve. We need only to discover how unnecessary self-defeating lines of

thought and realize how malleable our cognitions are.

Existential Psychology

Given that the core purpose of this reflection is to situate myself within a psychological

theory, I must discuss how ontological existentialism evolved or prompted the development of

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existential psychology. And whereas the philosophical piece concerns itself with abstractions

such as ontology, existential psychology is concerned largely with the interrelationships between

the parts of the unconscious and conscious psyche; the particular relationships of interest are

those pertaining to core crises that play out in our daily lives and generate core anxieties and

dread. There are several additional conceptual overlaps, several of which can be found in

Heidegger’s remarks on the humanistic aspects his work; most remarkably he urges us to be

mindful of “humanitas explicitly so called was first considered and striven for in the age of the

Roman Republic… homo humanus was opposed to homo barbarous … humanus means Romans

who exalted and honored virtues through the embodiment of education (Heiddeger, 1949 p. 224).

Here Heidegger situates himself not among the Renaissance humanistic frame or the self-

actualizing developmental frames of Rogers, but rather he simply proposes the necessity of

“erudite et institution in bonas artes” (p. 224) or scholarship and training in good conduct; his

sense of the humanistic is that which sets us apart from the less civilize lower apes. Our

erudition, bookishness and capacity for critical thought and engaged discourse with each other

allows the fruition of dasein. Clearly, then, the ontological existentialism of Heidegger is a

developmental frame with parallels to those more ubiquitous in psychological literature.

Existential Consciousness

The core crises of existence – those which manifest our longing for meaning, human

closeness, and the liberty to be the architects of our Being --- all of these are processed and

housed within our consciousness. It is our mechanized socio-emotional-intellectual apparatus

that generates the dispositions to act in the world (Hansen, 2013). These ways of acting to

varying degrees may assist in the resolution or escalation of these crises. Internalized oppression

and helplessness begets a hesitancy to act.

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And whereas the lines of inquiry within the didactic study of consciousness are

concerned with questions of definition (of the physical or ectoplasmic variety), the major works

of Sartre and Kierkegaard focus on intrinsic and universal experiences of dread, thanatological

insights and the practical requirements for the construction of ontological security. There are

multiple overlaps of these fields. If consciousness is philosophically demonstrated as nonspacial,

immaterial and tied to while simultaneously distinct from the body the sense of dread and

urgency that comes from realization of our mortality is placated. Similarly, if we understand the

mind as boundless and limitless with the unconditional freedom to mold our mind and mode of

Being in the world, we will forget the fear of death by Being in the world in an instrumental and

meaningful way. If we can understand principles of assertion of our ontological selves into world

from which the contents of our consciousness arise we can achieve a level of security in our

Being in the world.

The intersection of these fields has been critically examined in a large body of literature.

Most notably the anthology edited by Crowell wherein we find the following:

Thus, to be constituted in consciousness does not mean to be rendered subjective.

The field of meaning-relations is the “transcendental field’ and it includes all

transcendent entities whatsoever. Tables and chairs are transcendent in this

sense, but so are numbers, logical laws, and social institutions – as are quarks,

comets, brains and, of course, other people and their mental states. (Crowell, 2012,

p. 202)

Subjective internalization of the datum of the world occurs within the mind in pattern of

association that is purposeful and can be directed via critical reflection. And indeed, it is self-

evident also that the whole idea of existence is predicated on our faculties of thought. The

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natural intermingling and codependency of thought and the existential paradoxes was also

notably mentioned by none other than Sartre himself, who pointed out that his 1945 lecture on

existentialism as a humanism the intersection of the Cartesian cogito and the existential idea of

absolute liberty: “man is condemned to be free, condemned to the vulnerability of the self-

legislator, the despair of the self-reliant, and the anguish of the godless…at the point of departure

there cannot be another truth than this, I think, therefore I am, which is the absolute truth of

consciousness as it attains to itself” (Sartre, 2007, p 52). Here the sense of I am in the cogito

refers to the fruition of Being the unfolding of which is without bounds or limits and directed

without a doubt by our own free decisions and the movements of consciousness we cause within

us. And the boundless liberty of consciousness to create ontological security occurs without the

necessity of faith, spirituality or religiosity. My own personal evolution of consciousness and

emergence from primordial, self-destructive youth to fully functional adult whose particularity of

Being I directed occurred without divine intervention.

Hence the intersection of consciousness studies and existentialism is one rooted largely in

the work of J.P. Sartre whose embodiment of a phenomenological approach to consciousness

was one of several integral parts of his spin on existential theory. This approach places great

emphasis on the third person, experiential aspect of the human experience. A phenomenological

approach emphasizes the importance of deep reflection and maximization of the specificity of

language used to report our internal mental states. The internal, qualitative, linguistically

encapsulated experience of the aforementioned core existential imperatives is studied with the

lens of phenomenology. Phenomenology’s intersection with the core human crises characteristic

of existentialism, then, is the study of what is feels like to we “behold [our] possibilities …[and]

experience that dread which is ‘the dizziness of freedom” and my choice is made in fear and

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trembling” (Kierkegaard quoted in Kaufmann, 1975, p. 17).

Concerns, then, of accessing our internal states of consciousness, reporting accurately on

those internal states and reflecting deeply on inner capacities is critically important in the

approach to core anxieties and crises. Internal conscious states broadcast to the Cartesian theatre

are representations of the world from which they come and into which we thrust our Being.

Navigating the process of Being in the world requires walking the fine line between

internalization of mental states and self and the activities we engage in that endeavor to

externalize the self.

Kierkegaardian Levels of Existence

Kierkegaard has a very particular slant on existential concepts and the most efficacious

manner in which we should deal with them. The attempt to create meaning and fill the void is not

possible with anything we can achieve in this Earthly, materialistic realm. There is a necessity to

come to terms with what he argues is a universal experience of the divine – the indwelling of the

sprit we experience. What really sets Kierkegaard apart from the other existentialist is his

insistence on the necessity of faith that arises from our distance from the divine and the

purposelessness that distance causes. This is highly evident in prose in which he states that:

The experience of being shaken, of being deeply moved, the coming into being of

subjectivity in the inwardness of emotion … upon this common basis of more universal

emotion the qualitative difference must be erected and make itself felt, for the more

universal emotion has reference only to something abstract: to be moved by something

higher, something eternal, by an idea… no even if no one had perceived that God had

revealed himself in human form in Christ, he nevertheless has revealed himself

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(Kierkegaard as quoted in Kaufmann, 1975 p. 110)

God, he asserts here, is evident to the senses and there is a universal experience that is basic to

our humanity in which we are captivated by this emotion and compelled to ascend up

Kierkegaard’s levels into a life of devout religiosity. This ascent, of course, requires faith, which

is the confidence in the truth of the divine without any verifiable data from the senses. He

characterizes faith something that does not “result simply from a scientific inquiry… it does not

come directly at all…Faith does not need it [proof], aye, it must even regard the proof as its

enemy” (Kierkegaard as quoted in Kaufmann, 1975 p. 114). As we’ll later see faith is required at

the highest levels of his notion of tiered or hierarchical existence and is the antithesis of reason:

indeed, faith is blind passion and, I would argue, arbitrary grasping onto a set of ideas about the

intangible divine.

One could certainly see how many of these principles relate to themes in consciousness

studies. This whole notion of emergence of the self, assertion of our Being in the world and

augmentation of our existence along his continuum of growth is something that occurs within the

confines of our consciousness. And while the absolute liberty of universality relative to Being

that pervades the work of Kierkegaard needs to be acknowledged as intersubjectively valid, my

contention that knowing does not extend beyond the epistemology of the eyeballs limits

usefulness of his model. His developmental line, stripped of the necessity of faith, provides some

usefulness as a model of ascend the layers of a more fully developed, self-authored mode of

consciousness.

Aesthetic. The first of the layers of existence or Being in Kierkegaards framework is the

aesthetic, a word with Greek roots that translate to perceptible things. It is “to be as one is prior

to reflection” (Broudy, 1941, p. 294). That is to say, it is automatic, deterministic, reactionary

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existence. This is the lowest rung on the ladder towards resolution and realization of the true

nature of our Being. It is pre-cognitive in the sense that it does not include as the higher levels do

an ability to relate the sensory data of the world to abstract principles, reasoned argumentation or

deeply felt spiritual truths. It involves nothing beyond our rote, automatic instinctive reactions to

the objects of our perception in the world. The sight of flesh begets arousal and directs a

disposition to act thoughtlessly and lustfully. The smell of food begets hunger and a disposition

to seek out nourishment without consideration for others or ideals of equal distribution of

resources or such higher order moral principles as communitarianism. Things like “permanence

and fidelity” as well as anything in life that requires commitment and stability are rejected by

those stuck in the aesthetic layer (Broudy, 1941, p. 296).

Speculative. In this next step in the evolution of Being, there is a slightly increasing

ability to critical reflect and act in a more thoughtful manner. And while the goal of the

contemplation and thoughts that occur in this level remain the enjoyment of the individual, there

is more of an ability to work with abstractness or complex mental structures we use to direct our

actions. With these frames we:

instead of dealing with the world as it exists factually, we must convert it into its ‘what’

or essence…speculation is hampered by the particularity, contingency and temporality of

factual existence, but these are put aside by abstraction…the way is paved for the

achievement of a necessary and timeless truth (Broudy, 1941, 298).

With our faculties of speculation, we are able to begin to contemplate the rationale the truth to

moral judgments. And it is a truth that we attempt to formulate as universally valid, broadly

applicable and timeless. In this level we begin to differentiate ourselves from the animals that are

at the core of our instinctual urges, but a solid sense of self has not entirely emerged quite yet.

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Ethical. In this layer there is a much greater degree of unity, consistency and reasoned

use of principles in a manner that demonstrates a higher capability for abstract critical thought.

There is a critical choice that Kierkegaard insists we make in this level --- a choice to become the

“concrete, determinate self, and in doing so… accept responsibility for it” (Broudy, 1941, p.

305). We are able to realize the true self and make free decisions in the world.

Religious. What sets Kierkegaard apart from many of the other existential thinkers is his

insistence on pious faith and this idea that one cannot navigate the core crises of existence

without making that arbitrary leap. In his frame, there is an ultimate, higher divine good from

which ethical principles are designed. To transcend our fragile, finite existence we must reach a

level of existence that not just imagines but is connected to the divine. This is the final layer of

existence he conceived of.

Polemical Remarks on Kierkegaardian Levels

The highest rung of the Kierkegaardian ladder involves pious religiosity and making a

leap of faith; it involves the arbitrary selection from the infinite possibilities of the non-corporeal

hereafter a system of beliefs in order to relieve fundamental anxieties via the promise of ultimate

meaning the in presence of the lord. Our capacity for personally driven transformations and

purposeful construction of meaning is not fully recognized in this faith based model of human

growth. To abandon reason and a rigorous epistemological standard is to strip truth of any

chance of universaliability. One would not ingest a chemical into one’s body that is thought to

cure some life threatening ailment without absolute scientifically verified confidence in the truth

of its proven efficacy. So how can one accept a system of beliefs about the faith of our post-

biological lives without that same level of rigor?

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Synthetic reverie: On Paradigms of Mind and Resolution of Crises

Dread, fear, loathing…

Temptation to cease to care and drown the mind with intoxicants so all can be forgotten…

Ambivalence, escapism, cowardice…

Characteristics of a mind caught up in a seemingly futile attempt to create meaning in a world

whose systems will not imbue our lives with meaning for us.

Reality does not construct mind.

Mind constructs reality.

Mind is reality.

Mental processes are physical processes.

The mental directs the physical,

And the physical directs the mental.

Dread borne of unjustified anxiety.

Illogical emotionality.

Mind is substantiated by Being.

Being substantiates mind.

Mind directs emotion.

Finite biology does not.

Multidirectional causality…

With the puppeteer upon the Cartesian theatre moving the players at will.

Fixation on mortality is an infantile proclivity.

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Crossdisciplinary Reflections: Philosophy Trumps Dread

As previously noted, the intent behind presenting both existential and philosophical

perspectives on the basic substance of the mind, its properties and the unavoidable cognitive and

emotional turmoil within it is the envision the way in which the perspectives in one field may

inform the problems in the other. We have seen up to this point a plurality of perspectives that

regard the mind to a varying degree as fundamental and universally present, an epiphenomenal

byproduct of biological functioning and material or immaterial. To a varying degree, these

perspectives are able to aid in our efforts to come into Being in the world in a genuine way that is

able to maximize our efficacy and harmony with the world from which our Being is validated.

Some of these connections are intuitive, other less so. Here, therefore, I will endeavor to build a

sound bridge to cross these disciplinary boundaries and imagine how they may complement each

other.

The disciplinary methods utilized in philosophy for uncovering suppressed premises can

quite easily be applied to an effort to dig deep beneath the surface of the anxiety, dread,

disorientation related to absolute freedom to Be and difficulty balancing moments of connection

with restorative solitude. The urgency to imbue our lives with meaning arises from the

presumption based on emotional intuition, not reason that towards death there can be no feeling

other than unshakable and often debilitating dread. Additionally, the “dizziness” that is inherent

in the absolute freedom we as humans fundamentally experience is significantly less dizzying

and confusing if in the event our power of intention is supported. The basics of critical thought

dictate that we identify perspective we’ve held and taken for granted and throw them out if they

demonstrate sociocentrism (everyone holds this belief), egocentrism and if in the event it has

always been held as a belief without due justification (Glasser, 1972). On this basis one can

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lessen the dread by treating all of the possible scenarios post mortem as having equally

probability and divide them into four categories: equivalent, hellish or negative, heavenly or

positive or eternal nothingness. In the latter there is no mind, no perception and hence no need to

be fearful.

That Being said, several overlaps and potential points of positive intersection exist

between the paradoxes and the assertions about reality and mind implicit the positions discussed.

Prior to proceeding, however, we must imagine what sorts of conclusions most vital and have

use in the resolution of death anxiety and facilitate of emergence of dasein. Here we must draw

upon Heidegger’s perspective on Being as ever-evolving. In approaching death he provides a

formulaic perspective wherein:

Advancing [in potentiality] reveals to There-Being its submersion in “people” and brings

it primarily, without the support of “the world” and other There-Beings, before the

potentiality to be its self. This self, however, delivered from the illusions of “people” is a

passionate, self-assured, anxiety-tempered freedom unto death… death is the most

proper, exclusive and ultimate potentiality of there-Being… the ultimate seal of there-

Beings finitude (Heidegger as quoted in Richardson, 1974, p 81. emphasis added).

The universal ontological liberty we experience in the world during our finite fleshy existence

becomes, then in death increasingly less inhibited. In this framework, then, finitude and mortality

are to be embraced not as weaknesses but essential and integral properties of Being that ought be

embraced. Being unto itself and Being in the world are carefully tempered in the ontological

developmental line – and in death the biological Being becomes intimately and inextricably

reintegrated into the world as the organic molecules of our existence dissipate and reconnect into

the micro and macro biophysical systems from which we arose.

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So given this perspective, what gaps are most notable and would be best cemented with

philosophical conclusions? The dualistic orientation I have explicated here, rooted in the power

of intentionality and supervenence provides the existential thinker the equipment to obtain the

confidence in the truth that one has the cognitive wherewithal to navigate any crises or obstacles

appear over the course of our lives. Awareness of the fact that we are fundamentally alone and

radically responsible for all the movements in our lives creates an initial state of perplexity and

vertigo; that is to say, to be free is to be afraid and concerned that left floundering and

desperately seeking an appropriate path, a disastrous outcome is a possibility. However, in

having the confidence in the truth that our intentions have tangible correlates in the physiology

of the brain and can cause a positive change within us, we reach a place of comfort. And in

having the confidence (not faith, but absolute materialistic certainty) that we have a positive

impact on the human system in which we live and can live harmoniously within it gives us

additional comfort and peace. Armed now with this understanding of the philosophical spectrum

of problems in this field and the existential frames, we are ready to turn our attention to the

neurological piece and find the evidence for this claim that intention has the level of power I

claim in does.

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Wired for Happiness: Neurological Correlates and Definitions

“The problem of consciousness is the problem of explaining exactly how neurobiological

processes in the brain cause our subjective states of awareness or sentience; how exactly these

states are realized in the brain structures; and how exactly consciousness functions in the overall

economy of

the brain and

therefore

how it

functions in

our lives

generally.”

(Searle,

1997, p.

192).

Fig. 3: complexity and variety of association and axonal connections (Laureys & Tononi, 2009).

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I have up to this point provided somewhat cursory mention of the nature and specific

functional areas of the brain and nervous system associated with our rich inner life. Core to the

aforementioned notion of constitutional correlation is a consideration of the bio-physiological

cascade that is invariably linked to consciousness. To the extent that we aware of the involved

macro and micro processes and the point at which subjectivity and intentionality come into play

at the neuronal level, we will provide a useful answer to the last of the core driving question I

outlined in my introductory chapter: how can models of conscious and subconscious neural

circuitry inform our natural capacity for happiness? The abstract and poetic expression of

multidirectional causality must be substantiated by a discussion of the purposeful processing of

the datum of consciousness; we must also consider the metabolic processing of adenosine

triphosphate, the basic energy unit of the neuronal soma (and all the cells of the body),

transcription of DNA in the nucleus (and the cascade of following events that allow for cellular

communication). The correlates of sensation and perception are well documented, however, I

will focus here primarily on where in the pathway one can find intention; indeed the position that

we have a natural potential to direct our thoughts in a meliorative way needs to be associated

with the metabolic and physiologic activity of neurons and neuronal clusters. And although I

have named a few of the biological processes that precede the painting of the stage of the

Cartesian theatre, I have not outlined the steps involved nor have I provided the requisite

anatomic and physiologic details necessary to support the positions about consciousness explicit

and implicit in my writing up to this point.

The question for the neurological correlates of consciousness is absolutely germane to

this inquiry into that which into the nature of consciousness and mind; and indeed to understand

the responsive, dynamic and malleable nature of the neurological correlates is also integral to our

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understanding of how plasticity and Hebbian reconfiguration may facilitate melioration. We

must define what it means to be neurologically correlative to consciousness. And to this end it is

best to propose that to be a neural correlate of consciousness, an identified brain region or

specific functionality of the brain must generate a very specific corresponding element of

consciousness. Or put another way a neural correlate is an “a minimal neural system N such that

there is a mapping from states of N to states of consciousness, where a given state of N is

sufficient under conditions, C, for the corresponding state of consciousness” (Chalmers, 2000 p.

30). I would propose a slight modification of this statement of formal logic expressing the

neurological correlate in the following way:

A brain state (S) is constitutively correlative with some mental state (M) if and only if the

co-occurrence of S and M are lawful, observable and measurable and predictable.

I must point out an important distinction: that neurological correlation of a brain state is

at the micro level, whereas phenomenological inquiry of a cohesive collection of mental states

and description of consciousness occurs at the macro mind level. It is crucial to notice that in this

definition of neurological correlation, the grand central neuronal command center is not sought

or implied to have any specific location in the brain. Consciousness is a constant inner stream of

post-thalamic data processing with constantly shifts, activations, deactivations and amplifications

the many nuclei, gyri and lobes involved in processing the datum of consciousness; hence there

is not one single neural correlate but rather a spectrum of loci depending on what type of state

one is attempting to correlate. Given such a definition the spectrum of S has been proposed to be

variously correlated with several locations and type of processing along the neurological

cascade; this is a key consideration primarily because while consciousness is the totality of

mental states the qualitative character of which is dynamic and ever changing as information is

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continuously coming into the brain, associated and realized in our waking minds. For example,

the cascade from retina, to optic chiasm, superior colliculus and primary visual cortex involves

several degrees and levels of both conscious and subconscious processing; at the level of the

retina, we find specialized cellular structures that engage in a sort of “microconsciousnes” by

eliminating information about absolute light intensity, emphasizing local image contours, and

compressing the visual signal information into a manageable size during a manageable time

window to be trans- mitted to the lateral geniculate nucleus (Levin, Nilsson, Ver Hoeve, Wu,

Kaufman, & Alm, 2011).

Tremendous variation exists across literature with respect to the anatomic locales at

which the real “action” of consciousness occurs (Metzinger, 2010, Laureys & Tononi, 2009);

across these various models we find similar explications for vastly different sorts of

microconsciousneses in several regions and nuclei including: 40-hertz oscillations in the cerebral

cortex, intralaminar nucleus in the thalamus, re-entrant loops in thalamocortical systems, 40-

hertz rhythmic activity in thalamocortical systems, nucleus reticularis, extended reticular-

thalamic activation system, Anterior cingulate system and several others (Metzinger, 2010,

Laureys & Tononi, 2009). The problem with these proposed correlates is that they only provide

information about the micro level of mind rather than a cohesive, integrated and well-

orchestrated web of communicative areas that makes up our waking consciousness. The

computational power of the brain and its various specialized cells precedes the scope of contents

we are capable of experiencing.

The dominant view is that the relay neurons of the thalamus and the cortical neurons

wherein information is received and amplification signals looped back to the thalamus for

purposes of selective attention are the most important neural correlate (Metzinger, 2000, Alitto &

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Usrey, 2003). Hence a neural correlate is at the individual neuronal level and not reducible

beyond that point.

The conscious phenomenal experience of seeing someone’s face and tapping into the

memories, names and emotions attached to that person is entirely separate from the receipt and

processing of raw sensory data; the former is qualia and the latter. There is a trend in

neuroscience literature towards a model of consciousness that rather than presents a unified,

holistic and non-reductionist view, depicts a stepwise explanation of consciousness, with implicit

and explicit elements housed within many microconsciousnesses. Meaning, each aspect of our

sensory perception has a separate conscious correlate. Consciousness, therefore is multi-nodal

and occurs at a variety of brain regions and at each of these nodes it has been proposed that there

are a variety of types of specializations for the different types of conscious content (Zeki &

Bartels, 1999).

Consciousness is neuronally reduced based on the variety of types of content that are part

and parcel of the totality of our conscious experience. Functional specialization of clusters of

cells in their nuclei is essential for our consideration when attempting to understand the

neurological correlates of consciousness. And the specialization of cells of, for example the

cerebellum plays a significantly less important role than those of the integrally important

corticothalamic loops.

To further break down consciousness at the micro level, the elements include the full

range of awareness or background consciousness (awake, asleep, comatose, dreaming,

hypnotized, pharmacologically altered) as well as content areas within our consciousness that

specific neuronal regions give rise to (streams of linguistic thinking, shapes, colors, tastes,

textures, etc.) (Metzinger, 2000, p. 17-19). This assertion is justified by the fact that the visual

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perception of color in is perceived separately by 80ms than motion in the V5 motion center

(Zeki, 2003). Newer experimentation described this phenomena as ‘temporal dissociation’ and

refers to a ‘feed forward system’ in which information from lower gatekeeper V1 area of the

visual cortex are transmitted to higher levels of the visual cortex (inferior temporal area). Here

local and global processing are differentiated (Ishizu, Ayabe & Kojima, 2009).

I shall proceed in this following section to provide an overview of consciousness at the

neuronal level, noting the specific nuclei involved in the processing of sensory data as (content

consciousness), as well as those involved in producing levels of background consciousness. This

level of detail about neuronal processing is necessitated by the large amount of support I have

given for the importance to consider the separate and hierarchical modes of processing that occur

in the brain. The specialized and case by case variation in processing has tremendous support in

the medical literature. I will also endeavor to support the characterization of qualia as related to

neurodiversity or individual differences in the cascade of information processing; consider the

following excerpt from a chapter on the processing of sensory data in the primary visual cortex

(V1):

V1 dynamically interacts with higher visual and non-visual areas, as well as the

thalamus, and alters its activity and message depending on attention, memory,

context, and reward. Therefore, for efficiency, V1 cells bias their messages to

emphasize moment to moment relevance (Levin, Nilsson, Ver Hoeve, Wu, Kaufman &

Alm, 2011, p. 545 emphasis added)

Here we have support for a model of selective attention in which at the V1 level of the visual

processing cascade that impacts one’s experience of consciousness. At the microconsciousness

level of individual cells, there is a qualitative difference and impact on the information about the

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world received. And indeed, the action of these cells and the impact this has on our rich inner life

is, quite evidently and inarguable defense of the existence of qualia, precious to Chalmers, the

dualist camp and laypeople alike. And indeed, this innate potential for selectivity and the

amplification implied that is implied in the global workspace model (Dahaene

An additional concern is how these ideas relate to melioration, or self-directed healing. I

will propose and outline specific reconfigurations using the classic Hebbian model as the

biological correlate of self-directed healing. The puppeteer has the power to not just direct the

subjective qualia but also the observable and empirical processes within us by encouraging

Hebbian reconfiguration of synapses. Hebb’s postulate provides guidance as to the increased

connectivity and metabolic processes that follow neuronal connection. Hebb (1949) found that:

When an axon of cell A is near enough to excite cell B or repeatedly or consistently takes

part in firing it, some growth or metabolic change takes place in one or both cells such

that A’s efficiency, as one of the cells firing B, is increased (Hebb as cited in Bi and Poo,

2001).

Reworded to incorporate my emphasis on the power of intentionality and aforementioned

property dualism we have: When the neuronal correlate of our directed thoughts brings the axon

of cell A near enough to excite cell B or repeatedly or consistently takes part in firing it, some

growth or metabolic change takes place in one or both cells such that A’s efficiency, as one of

the cells firing B is increased; a correlated propensity to return to the same set of thoughts that

brought about this intentionally induced change in neuro-metabolic processes accompanies

these new axonal branches.

While the extrapolation to Hebbian reconfiguration is largely hypothetical, literature

supports the position that learning physically alters the configuration of neurons in the cerebral

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cortex by encouraging long-term potentiation and depression. Metabolic changes follow the

remodeling of cortical synapses and dendritic spines Experience-dependent and intentionally

directed plasticity in the primary somatosensory, visual and auditory cortices undoubtedly colors

the secondary processing and qualitative aspect of our rich inner life. This sort of plasticity,

which mediates amplification of sensory information, ocular dominance and subjective

emotional states that follow pre-thalamic receipt of information continues throughout life

(Feldman, 2009).

Gustatory correlation

To begin our investigation of sensory nuceli, and their relationship to consciousness I will

first briefly describe the gustatory or taste information centers in the brain. Gustatory nerve

fibers extend via the glossopharyngeal nerve to the solitary nucleus superior to the nucleus

ambiguus in the reptilian midbrain where we have a conscious experience of taste that is part and

parcel of our entire cohesive set of sensory consciousness. Higher level processing occurs in the

insular cortex where multimodal, state dependent processing occurs; collateral axons and

processing also occurs in the pre-frontal cortex, basolateralo nucleus of the amygdala, lateral

hypothalamus, ventral trigeminal area and parahippocampal region (Maffei, Haley & Fontanini,

2012).

Visual Correlation

Drawing largely upon Levin’s medical text on the physiology of the eye, I will outline

here the basic processing cascade and the point at which selective attention and other modes of

subjective coloring of the contents of consciousness occurs. The cascade of processing of visual

sensory data begins with the contact of photons with light sensitive molecules in the rod and

cone cells of the retina with subsequent processing in the occipital lobe. Here I must comment on

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the delineation between primary and secondary perception of sensory qualities or ‘qualia’.

Secondary qualities have no existence independent of our perception of them. A banana is not a

yellow banana until its photos follow the sensory processing cascades. Textures, tastes and

smells do not embody independently their qualities in the way humans describe them. This

assertion incorrectly classifies all elements of the sense data processing cascade as in the same

category. Retinal cells have no consciousness. A photon, traveling from the banana at the speed

of light towards the retina is not the same sort of energy, qualitatively as the nerve impulse that

travels through the optic chiasm. Nor I the same sort of energy, qualitatively, that is perceived

and associated within the auditory cortex and associated with the linguistic concept of ‘yellow’

and associated personal memories and emotional significance associated with that color

(cheerfulness, joy, action, optimism, happiness). At a certain point in the process of our sensory

awareness of the world, there is independent reality and physical substance off what we perceive

which is, as I noted vastly different in many ways. At the retinal level, we find selectivity for a

limited spectrum of light intensity and a compression of information prior to relay to the lateral

geniculate nucleus. That being said, there is a wealth of data on the events from

hyperpolarization of the rod and cone cells in the retina to subjective association and processing

(Levin, Nilsson, Ver Hoeve, Wu, Kaufman, & Alm, 2011). It is independent of our perception

and existing when we close ourselves off to the processing of sense data. Hence the discussion

that follows provides us with an account that is subjectively sterile and free from meaning.

Olfactory Correlation

Olfactory data travels via the top of the nasal cavity post interaction with the mucosa via

the olfactory, trigeminal glossopharyngel and vagus nerves to the appropriate brain processing

centers.

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Auditory Correlation

Auditory data is received via the inner ear canal, organ of corti and relayed to the

appropriate brain nuclei pictured at right. Aside from the processing of sense data, the brains

ability to make sense of all the sense data coming in is mediated by the system of communication

and association that is made between data coming in and prior memories. Under normal

circumstances, it is expected that auditory information coming in from the world around us will

enter through the byzantine conduit to the cochlear nucleus at the pontomedullary junction of the

dorsolateral brainstem as pictured above. Data is then relayed via white fibers to the medial

geniculate thalamic nucleus and subsequently to the primary auditory cortex of the cerebrum.

Fibers then communicate to the Wernicke’s area where complex human speech is processed and

amydala where emotional significance is attached to auditory information coming in (Flint et al.,

2010).

On Neuro-Existential Resolution and Transformations of Consciousness

We can now clearly see the degree of plasticity and variance in association that is an

inherent part of the neuroscience of consciousness. Our capacity for purposeful construction of

reality and shaping our rich inner lives has much both empirical and conceptual support.

Reconfiguration and alternation in brain states follows experience and these experiences are

largely shaped by the free decisions we make; intentionality has an undoubtable neurological

correlate and is capable of promoting the sprouting of collateral axons, neurogenesis and

recovery from a variety of disease states.

We have seen also the inherent and universal aspect the crises of existentialism: those

borne of are awareness of the finite and fragile nature of the biological vessel in which our

consciousness is housed. The sensation of vertigo that follows our absolute freedom to direct our

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lives is to a degree tempered by the socially imposed sense of obligation act, behave and sculpt

our dasein in a manner that avoids punishment and earns the praise of people close to us. We

may often find that these crises may create a sense of helplessness due to our limited and

deflated sense of our own self-efficacy.

The arguments I have outlined about the power of intention and supervenience as well as

the evidence from plasticity provide the assurance that is necessitated by existential wanderlust --

- indeed our need to travel down the road of existential inquiry is strengthened by the assurance

that the free decisions we make will have a tangible impact on not just the human system in

which we live but also the biological endowment that largely shapes our experience. The

brightest pearls of this inquiry is the massive amount of evidence for our potential to overcome

any obstacle and navigate the roadblocks and obstacles that come along in the season and phases

of our lives.

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CHAPTER FOUR: SUMMARY AND EVALUATION

Fig 4: Rath (1996). The stream of consciousness

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The genesis of this project began not at the beginning of my career as a graduate student

in the autumn of 2011 but rather at the point in the history of my existence on this earth

whereupon the first thought entered my mind. The necessity of didactic exploration of the

manner in which the mind can best be trained to promote melioration came about during various

childhood traumas --- abuse, neglect, domestic violence, socioeconomic inequities, angst,

jealousy --- all of these things imprinted deeply into my psyche and created an inherent need for

the sort of deep critical consciousness studies work I have engaged with. Personalizing is

unavoidable; and indeed I used my own consciousness as a laboratory with which I explore all

these questions of substance reduction, resolution of fundamental anxieties. That being said, I

will focus herein on the particulars of this project from germination, review of literature,

development of core question and composition.

From day one it was clear to me that the expansive nature of work in consciousness and

the broad scope of the independent studies I engaged in to prepare myself for this final

summative written demonstration of mastery of my area of concentration would present a

challenge. Consciousness encompasses mind, psyche, brain, materiality, immateriality,

computational abilities and hence academic inquiries into this field leave the budding junior

scholar at times at a loss and overwhelmed with the level of complexity. Hundreds of years of

discourse in philosophical methods, anatomic correlation and much more are inclusive of this

subject matter; hence determining for myself, with minimal advisement the most suitable path to

lay my intellectual cobblestones was a huge challenge.

Given that difficulty caused by the level of complexity in this field, I found narrowing the

expansive list of questions that arise in consciousness work to just a few quite challenging. The

primary weakness that is pervasive in this project I believe stem from its purely theoretical

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nature and the time constraints on the composition of the final product. Most of what I’ve done

here is to review current discourse and report on the depth and breadth of existing perspectives

that currently exist. What I did not have the time or resources to do is explore what I referred to

in some of the arguments I laid out as the presumption of universality. I wrote often of universal

human experience of the various existential crises but was not able to obtain any qualitative data

about the variance that of course exists across individuals in the lived human experience of

attempting to come to their own personal resolution of the fundamental fears. Nor was I able to

substantiate the “SEIA” model of consciousness I outlined with the collection of any data. I will

outline the questions that might drive and design elements of possible research projects in the

final section.

I argued against the possibility of ever developing an universal truth about personal

matters of spirituality that purport to provide knowledge beyond the limited epistemology of the

eyeballs; I recognized and respected in this work the function of personal spiritual truth for

providing emotional comfort but again did not do any data collection.

Personal implications and applicability

Given that this was a project situated in an individualized self-directed master’s program

in which I did all the curricular development, combing through literature as I worked through the

independent studies I designed and began to compose and envision my thesis, the implications of

my primary discoveries have personal and professional aspects. The idea that the psyche is

malleable and that our intentional modus operandi can overcome any obstacle has tremendous

personal significance for a man who rose from self-destructive, maladaptive behaviors to a place

of psychic equilibrium. I noted the atheistic musings of Sartre, who posed that no gods are

responsible for [our] condition, and indeed, none have been given any blame or credit for the

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fracturing and repair of my psyche between my eight and twenty-fifth years of life; to absolve

oneself from the responsibility for our own mental health and particularities of mind is cowardly.

That being said armed now with the knowledge I’ve gained I will carry with me for a lifetime

several useful principles including: (1) the possession of consciousness includes with it divine

powers of creation in the sense that we construct our internal experience of reality, (2) as I pass

through difficult transitions, milestones and confront the realities of human existence I shall find

that within my conscious mind lies the power to thwart any debilitating emotional crisis that may

accompany such an event. The existential power that is an inherent part of consciousness has

tremendous personal significance and will give me the tools needed to live out my remaining

decades on this earth in a manner compatible with contentment and happiness.

In terms of my professional development as an educator, the way in which I talk about

things when I direct classrooms will naturally be affected by my biases. My first job out of

graduate school will be as a language teacher so I’ll be dealing largely with lower level concerns

of the basic use of the English language. I am also considering getting into the consulting and

editorial business helping Chinese undergraduate and graduate students in the many universities

in the municipality of Shanghai with their written work in the humanities, literature, psychology

and other social sciences. In that role and most certainly other teaching roles the way I attempt to

inspire, support and educate people will be informed by the perspective I have developed

regarding the mind’s intrinsic aptitudes. I will endeavor to encourage people to foster a deep

understanding of the powerful conscious instrument they have within them and develop along

the lines envisioned by the legendary educator Horace Mann who intelligently pointed out that:

A second grant want of the human being, in this world of ours, is the development of his

mental faculties, with the skill to use them. There are two ways of making the mind

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powerful … the second is by giving it the skill and efficiency we can to such mind as

there is, whether it be the miserable mind that belongs to a weak race or the powerful

mind that belongs to a strong one. The first work is of physiology and the second of

education…in order to be fitted for our present sphere, we need mind – the clear shining

and far-shining of luminous intellect…If we would find new constellations in the

heavens, or discover new features in stars already known, we demand a telescope of

greater space penetrating power…rear stronger minds…and they will lift up the race… in

this way we shall obtain thought producing rather than thought repeating men (Mann,

1891, p. 349)

The power of the mind to produce original lines of thought Mann alludes to here has direct

correlation to the way in which I have describes consciousness as an elastic, powerful instrument

with potential for healing. Creating the next generation of thought-leaders in many professions

follows from this work. In my own teaching role I will encourage development of all of these

skills.

Potential further research

One could imagine a host of possible experiments of a heuristic and qualitative or

objective neurologic nature that explore the core questions that guide this work. The query that

underlies both the existential and neurological aspects of this work could be extended and

investigated using actual human subjects. Collection of both self-reported qualitative data from

individuals and objective neuroscientific data would be useful techniques for substantiating the

power of intentionality that I have supported in this work. Longitudinal studies measuring an

individual’s lifetime of struggles and triumphs in attempts to solidify being and confront basic

anxieties could be designed; one could in this case imagine structured interviews and other

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similar data collection techniques that would create discrete scales wherein degree of and

adaptation to death anxieties would be investigated. Similar scale could be constructed for

feelings of meaninglessness and the dizziness of freedom to direct our lives. The philosophical

element of this project is a bit more difficult due to its theoretical nature to directly translate into

qualitative research design; nonetheless, one could propose to investigate intentionality and

supervenience by creating key phrases that express determination, having participants focus on

these phrases for an extended period of time during meditative practice and objectively

observing changes in neurophysiology or scores on a battery of psychological tests.

With respect to the latter objective pieces and collection of laboratory data, one could

imagine a proposal likely to be accepted by the Institute for Noetic Sciences wherein the

neurological correlates of bidirectional causality could be investigated in number of ways. One

possibility would be observing changes at the micro level of synaptic transmission,

neurotransmitter release/reuptake, neurogeneration and collateral axon creation following

intentional thinking. In this case intentionality would have to be clearly operationalized and an

appropriate sample representative of the general public recruited. Here intentional thinking

would be differentiated from positive thinking in that while in the latter happy, self verifying

thoughts are encouraged, in the former lines of internal dialogue including things like “My will is

manifest in the world”, “I have power to direct my life”, “My desires are realized in the world”

or something similar would be emphasized. One would hypothesize that conscious intentionality

would impact neurological processes in the seat of executive function, the frontal lobe, in a

statistically significant way. Population sampled for such an experiment would have to be

filtered out and individuals with pre-existing psychopathological co-morbidities excluded. Here

methods dictated in the Journals of Neuroscience methods where cellular isolation and

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measurements of cellular chemotaxis, metabolic activity and neurotransmitter concentration

would be utilized.

However, given the theoretical nature of this project and difficulty with concretely and

objectively creating measurement tools for consciousness the primary modality of data collection

will be my own lived human experience of directing my own internal conscious states and

interacting with the world in a complex way. My role as an educator will also afford me the

opportunity to watch the way in which the consciousness of my students evolves as they expand

in their abilities to think critically, creatively and analytically.

In the short term, I hope to collect useful data during my senior colloquium where I’ll be

delivering many of the ideas in this work in a compacted sixty minute lecture to be followed by

interactive activities. This project, though not formalized and with a sample not necessarily

representative of the larger population, will in the very least enlighten myself and the members

of my inner circle that participate. My intention is to have a twofold exercise as follows: (1) “a

rose by any other name qualia exercise” in which audience members engage in a sensory

experience of a rose and report to the group their internal subjective state and memories that are

triggered and (2) group discussion where questions related to the evolution of and healing power

of consciousness are drawn out of a hat and discussed in small groups then shared with all. These

questions shall include at least the following:

1. As you have passed through your life stages, milestones, successes and failures how has

your mind changed?

2. What do you notice about the patterns of thought you automatically return to? How do

you recognize and change these patterns?

3. How do you combat harmful lines of self-talk?

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On the plurality of ideational constructs

In the course of our progression as humans through the various developmental milestones

and stages we progress towards a place of security with our sense of who we are in relation to the

world around us. Along this path there are a multitude of influential factors that dictate the

spectrum of technicolor consciousness that affect the emotional equipment we use to interpret

the existential crises to which I referred in earlier sections; for some there are indeed hues of red

and green that will never be experienced ---- thoughts and lens of interpretation that are so

foreign as to be beyond one’s analogical zone. Infinite variance in these developmental factors

necessitates the respectful allowance for the whole spectrum of religiosity and spirituality. And

although I maintain the position that regardless of the accident of geography that situates an

individual in a particular religious tradition, nodding one’s head in the audience in emphatic

agreement with an orator on a pulpit, I must emphasize in this final summative segment of this

work my acceptance of the possibility of finding tremendous meaning and comfort in faith-based

resolutions of existential crises while simultaneously supporting the logical dominion of non-

dogmatic atheism. For me personally I find deep meanings about the human condition in the

religious texts of many religious traditions including the Abrahamic, Buddhist, Taoist and Hindi

scriptures; however these truths about the human condition do not require devotion to a godhead

or dissolution of the materialistic perspective I’ve supported herein – rather it is simply accepting

the pillars of truths such as impermanence, suffering, systemic connectivity and the fragility of

life.

The argumentation I have outlined relative to the primacy and logical soundness of the

epistemology of the eyeballs rather than selection of the infinite permutations of the mystical still

holds water and intellectual merit in this concession; however, it must be acknowledged that to

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be human is to have a primal and fundamental need to come to terms with the infinitesimal,

fleeting and seemingly futile nature of our lives. In timelines both geological and astronomic, our

brief decades of life leave scarcely a dimple in the fabric of time. From scattered dust to a

tumultuous biological existence --- then unto dust again. This reality of the life course is an

irrefutable universal, however the manner in which it impressed upon the mind and is processed

is infinitely variable. There is therefore, a necessity of acceptance of a plurality of perspectives –

that is to say, the atheist must avoid the Hitchens-esque anti-theist spitfire and claims that

religion is evil and poisons everything. And similarly the dogmatic Christian proselytizer ought

not belittle and warn of the hellfire that awaits the atheist.

Respectful pluralism

I’ve here asserted that logic, reason and sensory organ based knowing is an inherent

limitation of our limited humanity. I have also expressed my inability to fathom the rationale or

process of selection involved in the acquisition of a faith based tradition --- indeed, where one

ends up is largely an accident of the place on the planet wherein one by happenstance is borne

and the particular Sunday school one’s caregivers take a child to. In my subscription to these

positions there is, simultaneously, a recognition and respect for the peace and solace of mind that

follows having faith-based confidence in the truth and a sense of community that comes with

being a part of a congregation.

And there is, undoubtedly, a cross-faith usefulness of the power of positive, intentional,

supervenient thinking the existence and application of which I have expounded at length. If one

wishes to direct consciousness towards the cabalistic letters of Judah, Abraham of Mohammed I

am absolutely in support of such an endeavor if it facilitates the maximization of the meliorative

potential of the mind for an individual --- if it breeds hate, intolerance and exclusionary practice

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such a practice ought to be shunned. If the Talmud or the Lotus Sutra is the preferred source of

these profound truths about the unfolding and harmonization of the human life course, I am

equally in support of that. I agree strongly and emphatically and it is the duty of each unique

individual to search within oneself in order to come to a personalized, appropriate and unique

understanding about how one ought to live. For myself, empirical and sound methods of data

acquisition and validation hold the greatest degree of truth.

Meaning precedes conversion

Given the commonalities in the life course to which I alluded --- those including, but not

limited to (1) the struggle for attainment of ontological security, (2) striking a balance between

self unto the self and social systemic self, (3) decoration and selective donning of the multitude

of styles of hats we wear in our adult lives, (4) critically reflective and accepting decisions made

in the passion and naiveté of youth and (5) ensuring instrumentality remains when the bodily

systems wane. Regardless of cultural variability or personal spiritual perspective, these struggles

implicit in the human condition are experienced by all; in thousands of years of human history

we have seen various competing attempts at addressing and easing the suffering that may follow

these crises of development, growth, existence and death. Our experience and awareness of these

realities of human life can be secular, agnostic or strongly religious.

Continuum and plasticity of faith

I must additionally insert a few words of commentary on faith as it relates the pluralism

for which I have argued in this section. Intra-faith hate and spitfire, one could argue, arises from

an inability to understand the years of history that result in the emergence of a faith tradition. A

pluralistic perspective, on the other hand, accepts the variability and deeply personal significance

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of faith. For Heidegger, there is an additional important consideration regarding the plasticity of

faith over the course of our lives he summarizes in the following way:

Anyone who stands in the soul of such a faith… can only act ‘as if’ … but on the other

hand that faith, if it does not remain constantly in the possibility of unfaith, is no faith,

but only a convenience and a set-up to hold fast to a commonly accepted doctrine. That is

neither faith nor questioning, but an indifference which can busy itself with everything,

perhaps with a great show of interest even with faith as in much of the same way they do

with questioning (Heidegger, 1962 as cited in Hemming, 2002 emphasis added)

Here we have a needed prerequisite for maintaining respectful intra-faith dialogue. It is crucial to

accept the possibility of the changing of ones strongly held doctrines over our life course as new

life experience results in shifts in connection and the sprouting of new circuitry, darkening the

old and illuminating the nascent, luminescent bulbs in our minds. The requirements for reaching

a place of ontological and spiritual security are as unique as each one of us; consequently, it is

imperative that we search within ourselves for answers to truths about the reasonability and

acceptability of faith, mortality and the human condition. In order to have harmonious human

communities and positively contribute to the germination of higher actualized levels of

consciousness in those communities, we must accept this personal quest for existential truth.

Keeping in mind the respect for variance that is an implicit part of my position relative to

faith and religiosity, we are prepared to consider the necessity of faith from an atheistic

perspective. Formally stated, we can understand faith as essentially a degree of confidence in the

truth of some datum about the world (D) the degree of which is directly proportional to the

quantifiable amount of sensory input about (D). Alternatively an in a manner more inclusive of

the realm of emotionality, faith is formally stated a degree of confidence of the truth of some

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datum (D) the confidence in which is directly proportional to the intensity of passionate emotion

that accompanies that faith in (D).

We have now, then two very useful definitions applicable to the central concern of this

discussion, the faith of atheism. In characterizing faith as related to subjective human experience

and conceding to the usefulness for the individual of this faith, we prevent conflict and

mudslinging. In the first definition we find an interesting reality of atheism, which uses the

aforementioned sense of the world “arbitrary” in selecting conceptions of godhead to imply a

high degree of confidence in truth required to have assurance in the existence of that godhead or

deity; that is to say, if in the event there is zero evidence in the physical world for a deity, a much

greater leap of faith must be made. In taking my daily walk across the earth there is a vastly

smaller degree of faith required to be sure the crust will not shatter and the bowels of hell open,

consuming me alive. There is a point at which the leap is far too great for the rationale mind.

Contextualized in consciousness studies

I have herein reiterated the reality of the universal human experience of suffering and

mortality. I have also attempted to temper the seemingly anti-spiritual and anti-religious rhetoric

with recognition for the usefulness and existential resolution that may follow from making a

drastic leap of faith. The characteristics of consciousness I have expressed in this work include

its (1) plasticity and directability, (2) power to override or supervene over lower level processes

in the body and (3) malleability and intentional nature. These aspects of mind are the primary

reason there is so much individual variance in the internal processing and interpretation of

existential anxiety; and indeed respecting these differences with an allowance for ideational

pluralism is crucial. For consciousness to have a meliorative impact on the individual, it must be

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allowed to blossom by selecting the nutrients from its environment most readily available and

capable of circulating through the unique root structure of that mind.

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