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Single Idea 5277

[filed under theme 15. Nature of Minds / B. Features of Minds / 1. Consciousness / a. Consciousness ]

Full Idea

Life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life.

Gist of Idea

Life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life

Source

K Marx / F Engels (The German Ideology [1846], §1.A)

Book Ref

Marx,K./Engels,F.: 'The German Ideology', ed/tr. Arthur,C.J. [Lawrence and Wishart 1985], p.47


A Reaction

This slogan is the heart of Marxism. It begs the obvious question of what determines (social) life? Aristotle is at least partly right - that some activities and social organisation are 'unnatural', going against the grain of the human 'given'.

Related Ideas

Idea 22792 Individuals attain their right by discovering their self-consciousness in institutions [Hegel]

Idea 23872 'Society determines consciousness' is contradictory; society only exists in minds [Weil on Marx/Engels]


The 21 ideas with the same theme [general ideas about consciousness]:

In all living beings I am the light of consciousness, says Krishna [Anon (Bhag)]
Leibniz introduced the idea of degrees of consciousness, essential for his monads [Leibniz, by Perkins]
Consciousness is an indefinable and unique operation [Reid]
A consciousness without an object is no consciousness [Schopenhauer]
'Society determines consciousness' is contradictory; society only exists in minds [Weil on Marx/Engels]
Life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life [Marx/Engels]
Our instincts had to be blunted and diminished, to make way for consciousness! [Cioran]
Unlike Marxists, Foucault explains thought internally, without deference to conscious ideas [Foucault, by Gutting]
A system is either conscious or it isn't, though the intensity varies a lot [Searle]
Consciousness has a first-person ontology, which only exists from a subjective viewpoint [Searle]
There isn't one consciousness (information-processing) which can be investigated, and another (phenomenal) which can't [Searle]
Brain states must be in my head, and yet the pain seems to be in my hand [Perry]
Does consciousness need the concept of consciousness? [Dennett]
Perhaps the brain doesn't 'fill in' gaps in consciousness if no one is looking. [Dennett]
We can't draw a clear line between conscious and unconscious [Dennett]
Sentience comes in grades from robotic to super-human; we only draw a line for moral reasons [Dennett]
Whether octopuses feel pain is unclear, because our phenomenal concepts are too vague [Papineau]
Our concept of consciousness is crude, and lacks theoretical articulation [Papineau]
We can’t decide what 'conscious' means, so it is undecidable whether cats are conscious [Papineau]
Whatever exists has qualities, so it is no surprise that states of minds have qualities [Heil]
If the present does not exist, then consciousness must be memory of the immediate past [Marshall]