Pavel Ivanov

Philosophy of Consciousness: a Draft Pavel Ivanov

The book gives a preliminary exposition of an entirely new philosophy of consciousness and subjectivity, together with an introduction to the hierarchical approach and hierarchical logic, underlying further conceptualizations. The key point of this philosophy is the unity of the world; a consistent development of this principle leads to the definition of the subject as universal mediation, which allows indicating phenomena akin to consciousness in the inanimate nature and life, as well as formulating the distinction of conscious activity from these two levels. The hierarchy of subjectivity is described in parallel with the hierarchy of nature and cultural hierarchies, with a continuum of intermediate forms between them. The material and the ideal are presented as two aspects of the same reality, always implying each other. Consciousness is shown to arise from the reflection of the people?s ways of producing things, and the essential ideality of consciousness is related to its material implementations. The epistemology of consciousness follows from its meditative function: subjectivity cannot be observed directly and the only way people can detect their consciousness is to imprint it in their products, thus making it observable as an object. The distinctive features of conscious behavior determine the ethics of consciousness.