Critical Self-Consciousness

[coberst]

Critical Self-Consciousness

 

I once asked a professor of philosophy what is philosophy about, she said “philosophy is about radically critical self-consciousness”. I have decided that CT (Critical Thinking) is the first important step on to this stage of critical self-consciousness. CT is philosophy light.

 

Our mind tends to be dominated by the ego and the group when we have not yet become critically self-conscious. I am not an expert in these matters (such has never hindered me from expressing my considered opinion) but from the things I read regarding critical self-consciousness they make sense to me.

 

Ego influences me by:

I think it is true therefore it is.

I want it to be true therefore it is.

 

Group influences me by:

The group name identifies me.

The group influences my associations.

The group is us and the other group is them.

What we do is good what they do is bad.

 

I suspect that the ego domination was the natural human condition during early evolution and slowly the ego morphed (transformed) into a group in some areas of consciousness (focused attention).

 

I think that Madison Avenue (advertising agencies) and the oligarchy (non elective group running the nation in that group’s interest) have learned to manipulate our egocentric and sociocentric characteristics for the advantages of marketing interests. Our ego drives us to buy the BIG car and our group drives us to dominate the other group in the interest of our group.

 

‘To be critical’ is often, I think, confused with ‘to be negative’. To be critical is to stop, think, analyze, and seek comprehension and possible improvement. To be critically self-conscious is to focus the critical effort inward with the self as the object of criticism.

 

I think that most of our personal and international tragedies are a direct result of our lack of critical self-consciousness.

 

Is that a ‘bunch of baloney’ or do you find truth contained therein?

 

I think that we can do a much better job building a better society if we developed a critical self-consciousness. What do you think?

[Fred56]

she said “philosophy is about radically critical self-consciousness”

This is true in the sense of a mind being able to evaluate, especially to evaluate the same ability in another mind.

 

Group influences me by:

The group name identifies me.

The group influences my associations.

Without group knowledge there would be only individual transient (unstable) knowledge. This extends to organisms that share any sort of resource, say bacteria that swap bits of genetic material -the group observes the (external) ´knowledge´ and selects some of it -this becomes group knowledge because it persists, because of this selection. This models what humans do (or bees, or ants, or probably every organism that requires knowledge --of itself and its orientation to the world and other organisms, and what that necessarily requires).

(Even if I say this myself -the mind with the supposedly critical evaluation function)...