Living Consciousness in Historical Context

This chapter is about main changes in ideas about living consciousness as they happen during the time of modernity. Until the twentieth century, European culture lived on basic ideas about living consciousness, laid down by the Enlightenment. Among others, such ideas included the belief that 1) living consciousness reflects reality (Realism), 2) symbols are the external repository of the reality reflected by living consciousness (Symbolism), and 3) living consciousness has a measurable degree of free will (Limited freedom of living consciousness). Approximately in the middle of the twentieth century, the basic ideas underwent a process of bifurcation, during which alternative ideas sprout from the basic ideas, and the basic ideas were strengthened and sharpened. Advantages and drawbacks of both pathways for modern humans are discussed.