AQUINO Journal of Philosophy

The paper is an investigation into the nature and fecundity of human consciousness. It engages different spectrum of scholarly and philosophical traditions to understand what it means to say that human beings are conscious beings, and why it is that the level of individual or national consciousness determines the level of self and national progress. Although the idea of consciousness appears to have two competing positions, the paper privileges the idealist position which conceives consciousness as the power of the mind to assign meaning, legislate for the world and reflect over its legislation. In this way, the objective therefore is to make distinction between consciousness as mere awareness and consciousness as a transcendental exercise which prerogative belongs to human beings only. The radical point of departure in the type of consciousness that humans possess is that it transcends mere awareness to a higher realm of self-reflection, concept formation and organization of immediate experience. In view of this, the paper argues that human beings are not only conscious of their nature, circumstance and environment, they are also aware of their individuality, separate from other entities. It is this unique status of human consciousness that makes it agent of self and social transformation. The method of inquiry is hermeneutic.

Open Full Text (PDF)