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From: kovsky@netcom.com (Bob Kovsky)
Subject: Re: Is CONSCIOUSNESS continuous? discrete? quantized?
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Date: Sat, 4 Mar 1995 19:34:05 GMT
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In the previous article, Andrzej Pindor quoted me and wrote:
>:
>>	There are gradations in the involvement of consciousness in 
>>activities, such as whether consciousness is active (as when one is 
>>programming) or passive (as when listening to another person); or 
>>foreground (programming again) or background (often while driving).  My 
>>experience is:  the more consciousness, the more advantage.
>>
>Obviously wrong! Try to walk with a full consciousness of what all muscles in 
>your legs are doing - you will quickly trip over. In fact I am surprised that
>you say this, since on other occasions you have made references to meditation
>suggesting at least some knowledge of oriental philosophies. In oriental
>martial arts it is said that a counterattack should follow an attack the same
>way a thunder follows a lightning. Not much consciousnes in the latter case,
>is there? And this is a frame of mind a martial artist wants to achieve -
>when his/her moves are spontaneous, not conscious. Only then do these moves
>have a chance to be optimally efective. This actually applies to any physical
>activity - ever tried to dance "consciously"?

	You are correct.  My remarks were implicitly limited to activities
where, in fact, a certain <form> consciousness was useful.  This was
because I was arguing against the proposition that consciousness is always
"epiphenomenal."  I also believe that consciousness is not single or
simple, that the term draws in an assortment of contexts and particulars,
and that no proposition will apply to all. 

	I should add that I believe one who is meditating, engaging in
martial arts or dancing is conscious, i.e. that attention is engaged in
the activity and that, without consciousness, the activity cannot be
"successfully" performed.  One feature of this form of consciousness (when
the engagement is "successful") is the absence of a division between actor
and object, a division that is present in other forms of consciousness,
including consciousness directed at work like programming. 

-- 

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    Bob Kovsky          |  A Natural Science of Freedom 
    kovsky@netcom.com   |  Materials available by anonymous ftp
                        |  At ftp.netcom.com/pub/fr/freedom
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