RE: virus: Consciousness

Robin Faichney (r.j.faichney@stir.ac.uk)
Fri, 13 Jun 1997 13:04:00 +0100


Eric wrote:
>
>And like Tim said, one interpretation
>of the Orginal Sin is that mankind therein gained /consciousness/,
>knowledge of himself and what he is capable of. Evil exists, and /I/
am
>capable of it.

Isn't that *self*-consciousness?

>...Similarily, if you can show in court that you were incapable at the
time
>of realizing the "evilness" of your actions, or that you were simply
>unaware of the law which you broke, your sentence will be reduced, if
>not eliminated. In that way, it is our awareness of our own evil
>(consciousness) that makes us guilty, and this is what the orginal sin
>points to.

I think it's better to say awareness of the difference between
right and wrong, than awareness of "our own evil", makes us
(at least potentially) guilty.

>Now, this all links to level 3 in a nifty way. Level 3 can be seen as
>the application of consciousness to alleviate the burden that
>consciousness has placed on us. By being continually aware of the
>responsibility that consciousness has given us, we can avoid the evil.
>After all, it was knowledge of /good/ and evil. It's just a matter of
>consciously doing good instead of acting on the bad. Thus level 3 is
>about using the "curse" of consciousness to remove itself.

Rather, about removing the curse of *self*-consciousness. But not
by doing good while avoiding evil. That's Level 2, isn't it? What we
have to do is to transcend the good/evil dichotomy, along with that
of self/other.

No?

Robin