Tree of Knowledge System - Consciousness and Human Behavior

Consciousness and Human Behavior

A frequent question and point of confusion in the ToK System is the definition and meaning of consciousness. As mentioned above, mind is not synonymous with consciousness. And, to understand consciousness from a ToK vantage point, it is crucial to recognize that the term is often ambiguous in its meaning. Two primary meanings are sentience, which is the capacity for mental experience and self-awareness, which is the capacity to be aware of one’s awareness. Sentience is conceptualized as a “level 3” phenomena, possessed by many animals other than humans and is defined as a “perceived” electro-neuro-chemical representation of animal-environment relations. The ingredient of neurological behavior that allows for the emergence of mental experience is considered the “hard” problem of conscious and the ToK System does not address this question explicitly. In contrast, through the Justification Hypothesis (see below), the ToK System involves a very direct analysis of the other issue of consciousness, that of self-awareness.

Another frequent question that is raised is “Where does individual human behavior fall on the ToK?” To analyze human behavior from the context of the ToK, one uses the ToK like a prism to separate the dimensions of behavior into physiochemical, biogenetic, neuropsychological and sociolinguistic. Thus if we imagine a conversation between a husband and wife as follows:

Wife: “You are late again.”

Husband: “Please not now. It was a stressful day and traffic was bad and you know if work needs to be done, I can’t just leave it.”

The words represent the sociolinguistic dimension and are understood as a function of justification. Justification systems are seen both at the level of individual, micro-social and societal (i.e., the context of justification in which men work and women stay at home). The actions of the husband and wife in terms of facial expression, body movement, etc. are seen as the mental dimension and are understood as a function of behavioral investment. The physiological make up of the organ systems and cells of each body is seen as the biogenetic dimension. Finally, the position, temperature, molecular make up is seen as the physiochemical dimension. Each of the more basic dimensions represent conditions of possibility that allow for the emergence of the higher dimension of process. Thus, insufficient oxygen disrupts organic processes which in turn renders neuropsychological and sociolinguistic processes impossible.