What if the most basic form of consciousness, the bottom basement level, as it were, is the non-representational consciousness of one's own immediate past, present and future (which I'll call temporality)?
What if the best that reductionism can do is talk about the representation of these phases? (That is, we don't rely on something present to represent the past and future, which are not present; rather, we directly direct ourselves to the past and future as such.)
What if this consciousness is so indispensable to us that this primordial temporality is related to animal consciousness as water is to fishes? What if we fail to notice its importance because it is ubiquitous?
What if the attempt to explain of temporality (our awareness of the immediate past and future) by the analysis of the not so immediate past and future is a question begging exercise? (for we are aware of the mediate through the immediate rather than vice versa).
What if the best that reductionism can do is talk about the representation of these phases? (That is, we don't rely on something present to represent the past and future, which are not present; rather, we directly direct ourselves to the past and future as such.)
What if this consciousness is so indispensable to us that this primordial temporality is related to animal consciousness as water is to fishes? What if we fail to notice its importance because it is ubiquitous?
What if the attempt to explain of temporality (our awareness of the immediate past and future) by the analysis of the not so immediate past and future is a question begging exercise? (for we are aware of the mediate through the immediate rather than vice versa).
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