Alienated Consciousness and 'Individual'

As has been previously discussed, Alienated Consciousness originates in objective conditions, beginning with the suppression of one's membership in a group, most notably as formulated by influential Theology and Political Ideology.  Now, the suppression is repeatedly reinforced by the common use of 'individual'.  For, 'individual' is properly a quantifier, so it entails the general term that it modifies.  Hence, the pervasive common use of 'individual' as a substantive is the product of the suppression of a general term, e. g. the suppression of 'American' in 'individual American', further reinforced by the common transition from '"an" individual' to '"the" individual'.  This misuse often extends beyond common parlance, to even some of those who are explicitly dedicated to eliminating conceptual confusion from ordinary language, i. e. Analytic Philosophers, thereby raising the suspicion that their enterprise has latent Theological or Ideological presuppositions.

Alienated Consciousness, Soul, Individual

As has been previously discussed, one influential breeding ground of an Alienated Consciousness has been the doctrine of the Salvation of the Individual Soul.  For, it cultivates the belief that one is separate from the cursed species of which one is a member.  Theological hostility towards 'secularism' per se has reinforced the Alienation.  Another influential breeding ground has been the ideology of Individualism that has dominated Modern Political Philosophy.  For example, the cardinal principle of Individual Right entails that the possibility of interference in one's pursuits by others is a condition of social existence.  Now, the decisive objective factor in the cultivation of an Alienated Consciousness is the suppression of one's membership in a group.  Such a suppression is most effectively accomplished by the presenting of separation as a given fact, e. g. that the Soul pre-exists the Body into which it is incarnated, that the Individual pre-exists any Society into which it enters, etc.  In other words, it is that these are falsified derivative conditions that is the decisive factor in the cultivation of the Alienated Consciousness.

Alienated Consciousness and Soul

As has been previously discussed, an Alienated Consciousness is the belief that one is detached from, and perhaps in an antagonistic relationship with, a group in which one is actually a member.  Now, typically, the estrangement originates in a political disenfranchisement.  But, in one case, the group involved is a Collective that is not a subset of another Collective--the Human species itself.  In this case, the Alienated Consciousness is a belief that one is a special kind of Individual--a 'Soul'--one which can be 'saved' from the group.  In other words, a prominent Theological doctrine breeds and reinforces an Alienated Consciousness that is beyond any particular political disenfranchisement.

Collective Consciousness and Alienated Consciousness

Most, if not all, people are members of multiple groups, e. g.  a family, a job, a geographical location, etc.  Thus, they experience multiple Collective Consciousnesses, which they coordinate with more or less ease.  Now, in many cases, there is a one-to-one correspondence between an awareness of being a member of a group, and objectively being a member of that group.  So, there are two kinds of failed correspondence--when one falsely believes that one is a member of a group, and when one does not recognize that one is a member of a group.  But, while the first kind of failure usually has subjective causes, e. g. delusion, the second can have either a subjective or an objective origin.  Among the common examples of a subjective failure to recognize a membership are negligence and irresponsible.  But a significant objective cause of a failure to recognize that one is a member of group is the obscuring of that membership through institutional or rhetorical means.  As a result, one can become aware of being not a member of the group.  This condition is an Alienated Consciousness, which often further develops into an antagonistic relation with a group one's membership in which one has been undermined by external forces, e. g. a hatred of Government.

Partial Consciousness and Individual Consciousness

That Individual Consciousness is a special case of Partial Consciousness, i. e. that the awareness that one is an 'individual' is a special case of the awareness that one is a member of a part of a collective, conforms to traditional Logic, in which the quantifier Individual is derived from the quantifier Particular, each a subset of some general class.  Thus exposed is what is often suppressed in Descartes' concept of Individual Consciousness--a sequence of withdrawals from a larger context that includes not only a fire, but all the residents of the building that he inhabits, etc.  Likewise, concepts such as the political Individual, Individual Freedom, Individual Rights, etc., also presuppose some larger social context, as does Selfishness.  So, since a Partial Consciousness entails a division from the remainder of the Collective of which it is a part, each of these cases of Individual Consciousness is inherently antagonistic, a characteristic that is suppressed by the premise that it is self-sufficient, e. g. the concept of Individual Right entails the possibility of interference by any of the rest of a Collective.

Collective Consciousness and Partial Consciousness

'Partial Consciousness' can be defined as the 'awareness that one is a member of some subset of a Collective'. Thus entailed in a Partial Collective is an antagonistic relation to members of the complement of one's subset.  Now, since a special case of a subset is that the membership of which is exactly one, the awareness that one is an 'individual' is a special case of a Partial Consciousness,  Conversely, since 'collective' can connote any plurality, the only human Collective Consciousness that is not, at the same time, a Partial Consciousness is Species Consciousness.

Collective and Species

In 'Collective Consciousness', defined as 'one's awareness of being a member of a group', 'Collective' is indefinite, i. e. it connotes any plurality.  For, Durkheim, who coined the phrase, it means 'Society', in itself an equally indefinite concept, as the contrast with Marx's more specific concept of 'Class Consciousness' bears out.  What is unclarified in the former is the scope of 'society', i. e. a city, a country, etc. But, there is no such uncertainly in the case of a medium one synonym of which is the World Wide Web--the 'Collective' connoted in the Collective Consciousness that is emerging in it is the entire species.

Evolution, Internet, Collective Consciousness

The significance of the Internet can be a function of a concept of History.  For example, if Evolutionism is true, then the fundamental subject of History is the Human Species, not distinctive individual humans, e. g. monarchs, and that subject has an arc that begins with its mutation from certain apes, and eventuates in the origin of a new species, rather than having no arc, or having one defined by certain Theologies.  So, rather than being an extrinsic happenstance, in a History of the Species, the emergence of the Internet can be interpreted as the beginning of an historical phase in which its members become more tightly conjoined.  It is thus in that context that the Internet can be characterized as inculcating a Collective Consciousness in each of its members, i. e. an awareness that one is a member of the Species.  Absent the historical premise, it is difficult to arrive at the Organicist interpretation of the Internet that prevents a lapse into an alienated version of Collective Consciousness, as has been previously discussed.

Internet and Consciousness

The fundamental contents of the Internet are data, which therein undergo a variety of processes--transformation, storage, retrieval, transmission, etc.  But such data processing presupposes another operation which is not among them--data input.  In other words, in terms of traditional Philosophical categories--the Internet may be 'artificial intelligence', but it is not 'artificial sentience', unlike, for example, self-driving vehicles, which can detect other entities in its proximity.  Now, despite their differences, most concepts of Consciousness entail a distinction between subject and object, i. e. the presence of something alterior to Consciousness.  In other words, Consciousness usually entails sentience.  So, the characterization of the Internet as Collective Consciousness is misleading.

Collective Consciousness and Internet

The term 'Collective Consciousness' originates with Durkheim, for whom it means 'one's awareness of one's membership in a group'.  On that basis, the Internet can be characterized as cultivating a Collective Consciousness in anyone who participates in it, thereby potentially influencing how one conducts oneself towards others.  In contrast, in another meaning of the expression, a collective is the subject of a consciousness, and some are characterizing the Internet on that basis.  But, absent in this second rendering, is any account of the relation between the collective consciousness and that of an individual member.  Now, such an absence is a breeding ground for alienation, with the potential for members becoming subordinate to an opaque power that is either inhuman or in the hands of controlling special interests, e. g. a mechanistic bureaucracy.  So, to prevent the Internet from becoming a medium for one Totalitarianism or another, the Collectivity that it embodies must remained grounded in its constituents, e. g. via an Organicist relation with them.

Fire, Plasma, Technology

Plasma has replaced Fire as one of the four fundamental States of Matter, previously known as Elements.  Now, since Plasma exists in abundance everywhere in the universe except on the surface of the Earth, where the most familiar manifestation of it is lightning, Franklin's harnessing of Electricity via bottling lightning is effectively a bringing Plasma down to Earth, for human use.  This action is thus comparable to the mythological bringing of Fire to human use from the gods, by Prometheus.  The notable aspect of the contrast between Fire and Plasma in this case is the punishment of Prometheus, thereby signifying that human Technology no longer has the status of crime or sin.

Plasma, Lightning, Electricity, Internet

As has been previously discussed, two characterizations of the Internet are 'cloud' and 'collective consciousness'.  Now, perhaps not coincidentally, 'collective cloud' is one description of Plasma, which is distinguished from Gas by the Liquid-like coherence of its charged constituents.  Another peculiarity of Plasma is that, while, according to the latest research, it is the most abundant state of Matter elsewhere in the universe, it does not occur naturally at the surface of the Earth.  The closest it comes to that is lightning, the human harnessing of which, by Franklin, in a Leyden jar, begins the Age of Electricity, and is the origin of the phrase 'catch lightning in a bottle', i. e. literally so. So, another characterization of the Internet might be 'Plasma out of a bottle'.

Collective Consciousness, Conscience, Internet

As has been previously discussed, a meaning of the phrase 'collective unconscious' that is more accurate than Jung's is 'unawareness of being a part of a collective'.  On that basis, the phrase 'collective consciousness' means 'awareness of being a part of a collective'.  Accordingly, the traditional concept of Conscience can be analyzed as a nascent Collective Consciousness.  But, that nascent phenomenon is currently becoming explicit and concrete in what is sometimes being called 'Collective Consciousness', i. e. the Internet.  So, the Internet is de-mystifying the traditional concept of Conscience.

Collective Unconscious and Species

As has been previously discussed, Jung's concept of a Collective Unconscious is ungrounded--his model of a multiplicity of subconsciousnesses is inadequate to their unification.  Now, occasionally suggested in his theory is that the collective that he has in mind is the Species.  Accordingly, on that basis, a Psyche can be attributed to the species, under the guidance of e. g. a Survival principle, with respect to which the Psyches of its members are its parts.  There then emerges the possibility of an 'unconsciousness' in the case of each member--an unawareness that one is, in fact, not a mere 'individual', but, at all times, an individual member of the species.  Such an unawareness, pervasively patent in everyday experience, especially in a society that promotes 'Individualism', is comparable to Heidegger's concept of 'Forgetting'.  However, it is uncertain that this Unconsciousness is, like the latter, Ontologically inevitable.  And, it is uncertain that Jung would accept it, since it would transform his principle of Individuation to a principle of Diversification.  Regardless, without the modification that it entails, i. e. that the 'collective' of the Collective Unconsciousness is the species, the concept is structually problematic.

Collective and Unconscious

The apparent contradiction between two of Jung's principles--Individuation and the better-known 'Collective Unconscious'--is due to the discrepancy between the latter phrase and the phenomenon it is used to characterize.  'Collective' connotes a concrete unity of a multiplicty, but Jung uses it to denote a deeply embedded identical substratum of the Psyche of each person, as is the case with Freud's Id.  However, this discrepancy between denotation and connotation constitutes a logical confusion--that the contents of each substratum are identical, e. g. an archetype, is not equivalent to that there exists a collective entity distinct from the multiplicity of persons in each of whom those contents inhere. Compounding the confusion is his use of the less personal 'unconscious' in place of 'subconscious', which is more clearly located within an individual Psyche.  Finally, the quantifier 'the' implies that there is only one 'unconscious', rather than as many unconsciousnesses as there are personal Psyches.  As a result, his logical confusion verges on the totalitarian mystification that personal behavior is influenced by some super-personal force.  But, in the absences of a concrete embodiment of such a force, and a derivation of personal behavior from it, the Jungian Psyche remains, like Freud's, a confused Atomist concept that is more coherently expressed by his Individuation principle.

Internet, Collective Consciousness, Collective Unconscious

If one characterization of the Internet--'Collective Consciousness'--is an allusion to Jung's 'Collective Unconsciousness'--it is a perhaps doubly ironic one.  For, while Jung is probably best known for that concept, his fundamental principle is, quite to the contrary, Atomist--that the basic drive of a person is Individuation, i. e. to distinguish oneself from others.  Now, that Individuation is best exemplified by the adolescent, as a prelude to the social processes of reproduction, child-rearing, and/or employment, is easy to verify empirically.  This limitation of Jung's concept is also exposed by Evolutionism, according to which a Species-instinct is the principle of its individual members.  So, the rubric Collective Consciousness is ironic in two respects.  First, as characterizing the Internet, it embodies the Organicist critique of Jung's Atomism, i. e. as 'collective' signifies.  Second, insofar as it exemplifies a general unawareness of Jung's actual priorities, the rubric itself can be characterized as an expression of collective ignorance.

Cloud and Internet

As has been previously discussed, Cyberspace and Information Highway are misleading synonyms for the Internet, each commonly used to connote Data, whereas 'cyber' literally means 'control', and 'inform' literally means to communicate Form.  Another misnomer is The Cloud, for two reasons.  First, it suggests disembodiment, whereas, the Internet is founded on its hardware.  Second, it connotes not at all the interconnectivity of the medium.  Perhaps, as research into it develops further, the Plasma Cloud, which is a phenomenon constituted by charge particles acting collectively, might one day exemplify the image.  But, until then, 'The Cloud' tends to promote traditional Mind-Body Dualism.

Plasma and Matter

Most closely corresponding to the four 'elements' of Ancient Science--Water, Fire, Air, and Earth--is not the 100 + 'elements' of the Periodic Table, but the traditional three 'states of matter' of Modern Science--Liquid, Gas, and Solid.  The reason why Fire has no Modern correlate is that it has been re-conceived as a transitional process, usually from Solid to Gas.  But, more recently, a replacement has emerged, to which some liken Fire--Plasma.  Plasma is a malleable medium of charged particles, which abundant naturally elsewhere, but not at the surface of the Earth, must be artificially produced for use in human society.  It thus epitomizes contemporary Technology--Matter that is artificial, electrical, and adaptable, i. e. it seems to be the distinctive Material Cause of contemporary Science.

Material Causality, Formal Causality, Electricity

That all elements are constituted by charged particles tends to confirm the concepts of Epicurus, Lucretius, and Marx, that Matter is not inert, and, thus, to refute those of Aristotle, Genesis 2, and Bergson, that it is.  Also thus demonstrated as inadequate is Aristotle's concept of Material Causality as consisting in merely what something is made of.  So, too, correspondingly inadequate is his concept of Formal Causality as consisting in the imposition of shape on passive Matter, e. g. sculpture.  Instead, the complementarity of the two concepts is perhaps better illustrated by the harnessing of Electricty that is the basis of much of recent Human history, e. g. the directing of current through a transistor.  In this case, the Material Cause is just as dynamic as is the Formal Cause, as is the resistance exerted against the sculptor's chisel by some bronze.

Proto-Element, Matter, Inertia

The possibility that Electricity, as determining the fundamental structure of all elements, is the Proto-Element of the Pre-Socrates, is undermined by two discoveries of recent Physics--of smaller particles that the Proton and Electron, and of forces other than Electromagnetism.  So, a better candidate for Proto-Element might be  the Quark, in which all the fundamental forces can be found.  Still, the existence of other particles that are independent of the Quark challenges that possible reduction, as well.  But a greater challenge to the quest for such an entity is the continuing counter-evidence to the thesis that there even exists one that is not further divisible.  Regardless, what does seem a lot clearer from contemporary Physics is that contrary to long-held beliefs, Matter is not inherently inert.

Amber, Electricity, Proto-Element

'Electricity' is derived from the Greek for 'amber', which, according to Thales, among others, possesses characteristics such as the power to shock.  However, he does not explain how such characteristics are grounded in Water, which he proposes is the proto-element.  Nor, do the other pre-Socratics seem to regard them as significant with respect to their choices of the proto-element.  In contrast, that electric charge has since been determined not only to constitute the structure of every element, but also to define their differences, suggests that Electricity might be that proto-element itself.

Atoms, External Relations, Electric Charge

According to Logical Atomism, relations between Atoms are all external.  Likewise, according to Social Atomism, interpersonal connections are contingent relations entered into by inherently independent persons.  Now, Atomism originates from Democritus as a Physical concept, but is eventually dispossessed from that realm by the discovery of more fundamental particles that are sub-atomic therein.  Furthermore, the establishing of the Electrical character of those particles entails that the concept of External Relation no longer applies, either.  For, that that character, i. e. their 'charge' is, as has been discussed, abstracted from dynamic interaction with other atoms, shows that an atom is not inherently independent from other atoms, i. e. that its relations with them are part of its internal structure.   Similarly, as the Age of Electricity continues, the ascendance of the Internet as the predominant mode of communication may be accelerating the weakening of the centuries-old influence of Social Atomism.

Electric Charge and Actuality

Aristotle's principle--Actuality is prior to Potentiality--is primarily directed at Plato's Theory of Forms, entailing that a Form is not a self-subsistent entity, but is abstracted from concrete experience.  Now, the principle can be extended to any abstraction from Actuality, e. g. to the concept of electric charge, which, as has been previously discussed, though commonly conceived as a property inhering in a particle, is, in fact, abstracted from actual Attractions and Repulsions into which the particle enters.  Furthermore, the principle is similarly applicable to the concept of the bearer of charge, and, indeed, to that of any individual substance.  Thus, even though Atomism is, because of its association with Nominalism, often conceived as antithetical to Platonism, an extension of it to Aristotle's anti-Platonist principle undermines that purported antithesis.  So, electric charge, as it is commonly conceived, suffices for Scientific and Technological purposes, but is implicated in more complicated Philosophical issues.

Electricity, Atomism, Organicism

Like much of contemporary society, the Internet is unthinkable without the harnessing of Electricity over the past two centuries.  Electricity is usually conceived as founded on two particles--one the 'positive-charged' Proton, the other the 'negative-charged' Electron.  But, these are heuristic derivative concepts.  For, the fundamental phenomena which they represent are, rather, processes of Attraction and Repulsion, which require two distinct terms.  From them, the concept of 'charge' attributable to each particle is abstracted from the concrete processes, and the further differentiation into 'positive' and 'negative' is a legacy of an earlier stage of study, corresponding to no actual quantities.  Now, the traditional concept of the political 'Individual' can be similarly re-conceived on a Holistic basis--as an abstraction from a more fundamental relation of Differentiation of one member of a society from another.  Likewise, the ongoing transformation of Politics into Cosmopolitics being effected by the Internet, previously discussed here, entails a transformation of the traditional Atomist concept of Humankind to an Organicist one.  Thus, the ultimate message of this medium is:  Electricity.

Typewriter, Electronic Data Processor, Mind

An old-fashioned typewriter is a personalized Gutenberg invention--a key is tapped, and ink-covered type strikes a surface, leaving an impression of the type-character on the page.  In contrast, in an Electronic Data Processor, a key is tapped, initiating a sequence of logical operations involving binary code, eventually producing the appearance of a certain configuration of pixels on a screen.  Thus, the typewriter illustrates Locke's concept of Mind, e. g. a blank page as his Tabula Rasa, while the Electronic Data Processor illustrates Kant's, e. g. involving formal operations.  The contrast thus further suggests that rather than being rivals of equal value, one concept renders the other as obsolete, as is the case with Geocentrism and Heliocentrism.

Computer, Electronic Data Processor, Mathematics, Logic

Computation is only one of the many functions of what is commonly called a "computer".  A more accurate term is Electronic Data Processor, also applicable to some of the functions of the Smart Phone. Now, despite the contents that it processes being combinations of '0' and '1', the form of its Processing is not Mathematical, but Logical, i. e. combinations of Disjunction, Conjunction, and Negation, with Mathematical operations part of its contents. Further contributing to potential confusion is the equivalence in some Boolean Algebras of Disjunction and Conjunction to Addition and Multiplication, respectively, an equivalence easily undermined by the consideration that Multiplication is basically repeated Addition, whereas And and Or are in no such relation.  So, given the pervasiveness and frequency of the use of EDPs these days, contemporary life is more under the guidance of Logic than it appears to be.

Internet and Species-Instinct

At its inception, and still widely, access to the Internet requires a fixed location, i. e. where there is a land-line.  Still, in merely two decades, access has been mobilized, via Wi-Fi, and, especially, the Smart Phone.  So, at this rate, the actualization of what hitherto has been in the purview of speculative fiction--chip implants--can eliminate even those devices for Internet connectivity.  Then, just as artificial instruments have been extensions of human biological functions, e. g. the fork of the fingers, the calculator of the brain, etc., the Internet may become more recognizable as an extension of the species-instinct of Humans.  As is the case with other instruments, this technological development would serve to more effectively accomplish the purposes of the original--to organize with greater versatility the members of the Species.

Internet and Plebocracy

Most of contemporary Democracy is indirect, i. e. requires representatives of the voters to function, with the referendum as the exception.  It is difficult to diagnose the extent to which discontents with those Democracies, e. g. complaints about 'big government', or even resistance to 'government' per se, are attributable to the displacement of the 'will of the people' that is involved, but it is not difficult to conceive that alienation correlates directly to distance between voter and action.  Furthermore, the necessity of intermediaries only increases the susceptibility of a Democracy to being hijacked by a Plutocracy.  Now, plainly, Representational Democracy is at least in part a consequence of a diachronic available Means of Communication, e. g. the time-lapse between entering a paper ballot at one location, and executing it at another. That contingency implies that Democracy is not essentially Representational, i. e. under other conditions, it can be direct and participatory, a term for which can be Plebocracy.  Specifically, with the availability of an interactive Means of Communication in which diachronicity is minimal, i. e. the Internet, Plebocracy is less unfeasible than it has been, and may be the system of the nascent Global Village.  As has been previously discussed, Wikipedia is an example of a Plebocratic process--egalitarian, collective, and direct, that perhaps foreshadows a general condition.

Internet, Democracy, Wikipedia

A widely-recognized impact on Democracy of the Internet in recent years has been its capacity to open up political fund-raising to anybody with access to it.  It also serves as a host for public forums, e. g. Twitter, thereby replacing a disappearing traditional component of a Democracy, even if words rarely solidify into concrete action.  But, perhaps the example of the most far-reaching potential for that system is Wikipedia.  For, what appears there is the public product of collective direct action, i. e. a model of a Participatory Democracy--it is of the people, by the people, and for the people.  In contrast, a forum such as Twitter remains Atomistic, i. e. individual voices speaking either at or past one another, and fund-raising for representatives is never more than indirectly efficacious.

Internet and Participatory Democracy

The content of the Internet includes and replicates that of previous media such as radio, television, print, and cinema.  In contrast, its Form is a direct descendant of that of the telephone, as is plainly manifest in its early dial-up mode.  The significant characteristic of that Form is its combination of simultaneity and interactivity.  Thus, on that basis, the Cosmopolity, i. e. the Global Village, has been envisaged as a Participatory Democracy.  Accordingly, an attempt to stratify the Internet on Economic grounds, e. g. the current effort to eliminate "Net neutrality", is easily interpreted as a Plutocratic threat to that Democracy.

Cyberspace and Information Highway

The synonymity in current parlance of 'cyberspace' and 'information highway' is perhaps ironic. The root of 'cyber' is the same as that of 'govern', so, accordingly, 'cybernetics', its introduction into contemporary culture, signifies the autonomy of operations in a system.  'Form' means 'shape', 'pattern', etc., so the literal meaning of 'to inform' is 'to communicate Form to', or, in other words, 'to exercise Formal Causality on'.  Now, Autonomy and Formal Causality intersect in Kant's doctrine, and, arguably, in Aristotle's, as well.  So, that in common parlance Cyberspace and Information each connote Content is antithetical to the more rigorously derived intersection of their etymological ancestors.