The Traditional Conception of Consciousness

If a homeostatic conception of Consciousness seems unfamiliar, it is due in part to its notable ancestor having been pre-empted by its author himself. In Aristotle's notion of Practical Wisdom, i. e. his theory of 'Moderation', the Intellect serves the homeostatic function of introducing balance into behavior. However, he goes on to propose that in this capacity, the Intellect is only imperfect, for, its ideal, the apex of human fulfillment, is Theoretical Wisdom, 'thought thinking itself', the self-sufficient Intellect. Thus, despite Aristotle's continued rejection of Plato's separation of Soul and Body, he himself arrives at a notion of an essentially incorporeal Intellect. So, Aristotle's legacy in this area is that the Intellect is essentially not the coordinator of physical behavior, but incorporeal, contemplative, and self-related. The main heir of this legacy is the standard Modern notion of the 'ghost in the machine' theory of Consciousness, which even when incarnated, is an observer, operating independently of its host body, of the outer world and of itself. Even Spinoza strays from his conviction that Mind and Body are correlates, when he proposes the existence of a reflective mental relation, the 'Idea of an Idea', without even mentioning the existence of any physical parallel, which is otherwise demanded by his system. The endurance of Aristotelianism even two millennia later is perhaps best summed up by the usual technical meaning of the expression 'self-consciousness'--'the consciousness of consciousness'--as if Selfhood, too, were essentially disembodied.