CONSCIOUSNESS: AN EXPLANATORY ENIGMA A LAW IS A TRANSCENDENT OBJECT OF KNOWLEDGE THERE CAN BE CONSCIOUSNESS OF A LAW, NOT A LAW OF CONSCIOUSNESS SARTRE, "BEING AND NOTHINGNESS."

Abstract

It is a widely held belief that human consciousness is somehow a unique phenomenon within an otherwise physically determined universe. On the other hand, scientific view of the emergence of consciousness out of complex neuro-physiological brain processes is a widely accepted hypothesis amongst the evolutionary biologists. The scientific hypothesis is usually considered as an alternative to the enigmatic character of consciousness. Over the last decade, many scientists have propounded that consciousness is of material origin by offering experimental evidences from damaged brain cases. Nevertheless, the peculiarity of human consciousness does not give the scientist conclusive grounds for his cherished hypothesis. The most fundamental peculiarity of consciousness is human subjectivity and freedom that transcends all physical explanations. The physicalist approach in this context is oriented towards explaining away this subjectivity and freedom by deploying reductive models of explanations. The physical scientist believes that nothing can be uncaused or unaccounted for within the causal nexus of physical nature. Therefore, he believes that human consciousness cannot be a unique phenomenon. Still, the deterministic model of human brain, based on complex causal mechanisms, cannot replace the subjective experience of freedom of consciousness. The reasons for this explanatory impossibility lie in the other associated aspects of consciousness overlooked by the physical scientist. One of the neglected aspecL of this explanatory prob.em is the relation of this freedom with the notions of self and person. which are essentially subjective aspects of human individual. It is clear at the outset that subjectivity of self defies all mechanical models of explanations. Even freedom of consciousness has no meaning without an individual human existence as a person along with its subjectivity. Thus, the abstract notion of free consciousness also requires grounding in a concrete form of human existence as a self-conscious human being in order to be understood properly.