Chapter 8: On the Affective—§1. On Consciousness and Self-Consciousness

Consciousness is the innermost sensory feeling or the power through which all spiritual activity occurs; without this, neither can sensation from the sensory organs take place, nor comparison of particular notions toward one another to form particular concepts, nor judgment, nor recollection; because the impression made in any of our sensory organs by nature is for man as if non-existent, unless the soul permits attention to the impression and does not receive it into consciousness; and the reception of the impression into consciousness is called perception according to sensation, and the image in the soul produced through sensory perception is called a particular notion or specific concept distinguished from the general concept produced by the discerning mind from particular concepts; but through every sensory perception and through every concept the subject perceiving or understanding receives immediate knowledge of itself and of its own activity, receives that is consciousness of itself as a being distinct from the object or substratum, and the substratum is disposed to feel itself, that it finds itself in some manner, pleasantly that is or displeasantly; through the perception therefore of every impression or every stimulus works also the innermost sensation and consciousness.

Already we ask: does the animal also have this power? Do all these complex and important spiritual operations occur in it? We declare negatively no; because granting such spiritual operation to animals makes the problem more enigmatic than we solve it; because this requires the operation of discerning mind and so many other physical and acquired advantages that animals lack; because animals do not have consciousness. Because the soul through this has immediate knowledge of its own concepts, phantasms, and desires, and all in time alterations of itself and consciousness of consciousness, man has self-consciousness and understands that he exists; the animal as deprived of all these is deprived of consciousness and not even does it have consciousness of itself nor understands that it exists.

Through Self-Consciousness we understand that we are a spiritual existence endowed with spiritual and varied activity which we ought to direct according to reason and under the supervision of consciousness; because as a spiritual principle we understand that our powers are relative and hence we are subject to deception; so that we avoid deception, we appeal to the judgment of consciousness. Through consciousness we understand the principles of virtue, such as prudence, wisdom, justice, courage, holiness, love, magnificence, charity, and the rest.

Consciousness as intellectual and as sensory activity judges whether something ought to proceed or not proceed, or whether something was done or was not done as it ought to be done.

Consciousness in the first circumstance represents the know thyself, self-knowledge; in the second according to know thyself according to reason it applies. From know thyself flows every principle of which consciousness is guardian. Hence consciousness is not a sensation; because sensation is called the sensory utterance of our self about external objects, hence it represents no moral principle or only knowledge. Consciousness however represents a moral principle; as such it is simple, as goodness is simple; if Consciousness through habits or deception or false teaching and passions is turned from its path in the exercise of its right, it does not follow that it is good or evil. The savage eating his enemy is at peace as acting according to the law that prevails, as also the European mutilating his like in battles; similarly also the man-slayer sacrificing his child on the altar of idols, because he thinks his sacrifice is pleasing to the divine; the executioner feels no reproach of conscience as also the judge condemning his neighbor and brother to death; the one fulfills the law, the other his duty.

This phenomenon does not overturn the idea we have of conscience that it becomes the judge and accuser of our good and evil actions; because we know that man is subject to deception, and conscience accompanies him in his deception; yet it always acts for the moral principle of goodness, although it sometimes cannot distinguish it from evil. The judge who sends the condemned to the gates of death from erring judgment does not have an evil conscience; he has acted according to conscience, but the erring judgment has also deceived his conscience; hence it is demonstrated that there is no evil but erring conscience. Conscience confirms and ratifies in moral activity the actions proceeded from free will. Hence the remorse of conscience is always a true judge and accuser of man’s actions, regardless whether it judges erring or not, and thus it is always the guardian of the moral principles of reason.

Those who do not accept conscience as guardian of the moral principles, but regard it as movement turned toward itself or as a function of the brain are greatly deceived and ignore the true man. The true man has received the law written in his heart, and this is the divine will toward which he ought to identify his will, and toward which he ought to regulate his thoughts, his dianoeta, his actions, and his activities; the slightest deviation provokes protest; in order to fulfill the law precisely, one ought to have complete knowledge of it, and perfect consciousness of his spirit, consciousness of himself, and true knowledge of the lawgiver. The lack of these leads conscience astray from erring judgment and gives birth to erring conscience from which so many things that oppose the divine law arise.

Conscience is one, simple, and good, and only man has conscience; it guides him toward observance of the divine law which perfects him and reveals him as an image of God and his likeness upon the earth.

How nobly was man fashioned; how sin has corrupted him, ignorance has debased him; but no; man was fashioned nobly, and shall remain noble. If some have squandered nobility, if some have denied his noble descent, does not his presence contradict them? Does not his spirit refute them; does not all creation recognize him as a superior being, and submit to him? Yes, man is an excellent creation and nothing can be compared to him. Yes, man is an excellent creation and nothing can be compared to him.

This truth is confirmed by all the sober part of the human race; all truly wise men; Fr. Frédéric de Jouvemunt in his most learned work Le peuple primitif, sa religion, son histoire et sa civilisation behold what he says about man: “Therefore man is of noble descent; he was born in paradise and not within forests; the songs of angels and not the voices of tigers and wolves echoed around his cradle. God watches over him before he even recognizes him; and it is not in any way true that he created the idea of divinity by finding a divinity to worship. Humanity proceeds not from unbelief, but from faith, not from deception, but from truth, not from ignorance, but from revelation. This is calumny, it is the same as falsely writing against himself and contrary to all memories of childhood, that humanity guided into its descent the life of savages and of our ancestors. But the corruption of the heart has filled the human spirit with darkness which obscured the light of truth. God was divided into countless false gods; nature was deified into a multitude of primary and secondary divinities, and the souls of the dead were elevated into spirits; yet this very humanity would have perished through the ages, if it had not possessed Christian civilization.” Another philosopher says: Man presents himself as an atomic unit composed of nature and spirit, from external substance and from some internal substance, from necessity and freedom; he is a mystery for the world of spirits and an object of deep reflection.

He is the most perfect work of the omnipotence and all-wisdom and love of God. Full of integrity covered by a physical garment, he beholds God as from a distance and is equally assured of his existence as the heavenly spirits; the son of revelation and hero of faith; weak yet strong; poor yet possessor of the highest kingdom of divine favor.

Such is man; because all men are the same, that from one stock all and from one descent, that varieties are accidents and variations of one and the same kind, and that all descend from Adam, we will prove this in the following part.