Online research in philosophy

For Gifford, the profoundest explorer of the human consciousness, time, and memory is James Joyce and in its range of reference, wit, and humanity the spirit of ...

("Consciousness of Time, Ecology, and Ethics") The paper investigates the impact of global environmental issues on our consciousness of time and vice versa. In Part I, I first analyze in detail how various kinds of temporal structure, such as linear progress, circularity etc., are built and what makes us select one of them as being universal. Part II discusses types of confusion and distortion of our consciousness of time due to global environmental issues. Since our consciousness of time is fundamental to our way of perceiving and dealing with the environment, the topic has also an ethical dimension. In Part III, following Hans Jonas’ approach of ethics, I ask what kind of a consciousness of time is adequate for responsibly treating our environment.

It really is true -- Fact : there is nothing greater than consciousness -- Consciousness is what you are -- Aliveness -- Fact : consciousness is the infinite itself -- Consciousness is not the "human mind" -- Whose life is it, anyway? -- The all-inclusiveness of consciousness -- To be God, God has to be -- Consciousness is neither physical nor metaphysical -- There is only one consciousness -- Consciousness is -- Fact : consciousness is what the present is -- Check the credentials -- Cease ye from man -- Once upon a time -- How much distance or depth is there to a dream? -- The immediacy of all -- The spectrum of what isn't -- Love is what existence is -- Consciousness cannot ignore its own presence -- The present is all that is present -- Time is not continuous -- The present is perfection itself -- The infinite one -- I am not a duplex -- Now is undelayable -- Ideas cannot withhold themselves -- What is a statement of truth? -- You cannot be limited -- Majestic awareness -- Peace.

In his Confessions, Augustine lamented, “What, then, is time? If no one asks me, I know: if I wish to explain it to one who asks, I know not.” In this respect, consciousness is like time. If no one asks me what consciousness is, I know. To pay attention to something is to become conscious of it. Indeed, everything with which I can be familiar ­­ from the sound of your footsteps to my own daydreams ­­ can be an object of my consciousness. Yet, if I wish to explain consciousness to one who asks, I know not. I (and, I suspect, we) have little theoretical grip on the nature of consciousness. Not for nothing did Schopenhauer call the problem of consciousness ‘the world knot.’ What, then, is consciousness?

The axiom of extensionality of set theory states that any two classes that have identical members are identical. Yet the class of persons age i at time t and the class of persons age i + 1 at t + l, both including same persons, possess different demographic attributes, and thus appear to be two different classes. The contradiction could be resolved by making a clear distinction between age groups and cohorts. Cohort is a multitude of individuals, which is constituted within a time interval, and endures throughout part of the time continuum. Age group, on the other hand, is only a reference term to which empirical measurement relates, as in birth or death rates. Accordingly, the two concepts, age group i at t, and age group i + 1 at t + 1, are different. The standard population growth model of Leslie and Lotka, however, does not support such a distinction in age groups. An alternative model, proposed recently, implies precisely such a distinction.

Phytomorphology — if concerned with development — often concentrates on correlative changes of form and neglects the aspects of age, time and clock, although the plant's spatial and temporal organisation are intimately interconnected. Common age as measured in physical time by a physical process is compared to biological age as measured by a biological clock based on a biological process. A typical example for a biological clock on the organ level is, for example, a shoot. Its biological age is measured by the biological time unit of a plastochron, which itself is defined by the cyclic-periodic initiation of the leaves. In a controlled environment biological age may replace physical age. However, biological and physical age are not necessarily linearly convertible into each other. In stationary or steady state conditions the repetitive initiation of any organ, unit or module of an articulate plant or plant modular system may define the biological time unit. A linear — monotonous biological process, e.g. axis elongation, may also define a biological time unit as a certain amount of additional growth, e.g. of length. One may speak of periodical and of continuous plastochron or, perhaps, of plastochron and rheochron. A precise measure of biological age is the generalized plastochron index applying to any modular system and module respectively. However, one should be aware that it is based on two clocks, one of them referring to the periodic process of module initiation for counting the integer plastochrons and the other to the continuous plastochron of module growth for the determination of the fraction of one plastochron. The application of the concepts is restricted to phases of stationary or steady state growth and development. In certain cases of non-stationary or non-steady state conditions a normalized-age concept may apply.