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A. Consciousness is a faculty that allows a being to be awake to experience (1)
B. Behind every consciousness is a transcendental soul (2)
C. Consciousness itself is not physical matter (4)
D. The soul behaves according to emotion instead of determined laws (2)
E. Cognition and memory are mostly physical processes (2)
A. Consciousness is a faculty that allows a being to be aware of experience
Carl Jung (1875-1961, psychologist):
1. "It is the ego that serves to light up the entire system, allowing it to become conscious and thus to be realized." (Man and His Symbols, 1964 posthumous)
B. Behind every consciousness is a transcendental soul
Carl Jung (1875-1961, psychologist):
2. "Nevertheless, we have good reason to suppose that behind this veil there exists the uncomprehended absolute object which affects and influences us - and to suppose it even, or particularly, in the case of psychic phenomena about which no verifiable statements can be made." (Memories, Dreams and Reflections, 1963 posthumous)
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592, philosopher):
3. "It is a thorny undertaking, and more so than it seems, to follow a movement so wandering as that of our mind, to penetrate the opaque depths of its innermost folds, to pick out and immobilize the innumerable flutterings that agitate it." (Essais, 1580)
C. Consciousness itself is not physical matter
Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716, philosopher):
4. "Moreover, we must confess that the perception, and what depends on it, is inexplicable in terms of mechanical reasons, that is, through shapes and motions." (Monadology, 1714)
Erwin Schrodinger (1877-1948, physicist):
5. "Consciousness cannot be accounted for in physical terms. For consciousness is absolutely fundamental. It cannot be accounted for in terms of anything else." (Quoted in The Observer, 1931)
Erwin Schrodinger (1877-1948, physicist):
6. "[Science] cannot tell us a word about red and blue, bitter and sweet, physical pain and physical delight; it knows nothing of beautiful and ugly, good or bad, god and eternity. Science sometimes pretends to answer questions in these domains, but the answers are very often silly that we are not inclined to take them seriously." (Nature and the Greeks, 1954)
Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913, naturalist):
7. "To say that mind is a product or function of protoplasm, or of its molecular changes, is to use words to which we can attach no clear conception. You cannot have, in the whole, what does not exist in any of the parts; and those who argue thus should put forth a definite conception of matter, with clearly enunciated properties, and show, that the necessary result of a certain complex arrangement of the elements or atoms of that matter, will be the production of self-consciousness." (Considerations to the Theory of Natural Selection, 1870)
D. The soul behaves according to emotion instead of determined laws
Jacques Lacan (1901-1981, psychologist):
8. "Desire, a function central to all human experience, is the desire for nothing nameable. And at the same time this desire lies at the origin of every variety of animation." (Goodreads.com)
Simone Weil (1909-1943, philosopher):
9. "There is a reality outside the world, that is to say, outside space and time, outside man's mental universe, outside any sphere whatsoever that is accessible to human faculties. Corresponding to this reality, at the centre of the human heart, is the longing for an absolute good, a longing which is always there and is never appeased by any object in this world." (Draft for a Statement of Human Obligation, posthumous)
E. Cognition and memory are mostly physical processes
Alan Turing (1912-1954, computer scientist):
10. "If one wants to make a machine mimic the behaviour of the human computer in some complex operation one has to ask him how it is done, and then translate the answer into the form of an instruction table. Constructing instruction tables is usually described as 'programming'." (Computing Machinery and Intelligence, 1950)
Alan Turing (1912-1954, computer scientist):
11. "We may hope that machines will eventually compete with men in all purely intellectual fields. But which are the best ones to start with? Many people think that a very abstract activity, like the playing of chess, would be best. It can also be maintained that it is best to provide the machine with the best sense organs that money can buy, and then teach it to understand and speak English." (AZQuotes.com)
