Self-Awareness

We are unique amongst living creatures for our self-awareness. This may sound confusing. Aren’t animals aware of their surroundings, environment, body and needs? Yes, they most certainly are. That is not self-awareness though. That is consciousness.

Self-awareness, in philosophical terms, is the “awareness of one’s own personality and individuality”. It is our awareness of our consciousness. We are unique in being able to ponder our own existence. In broader terms, we are the first conduit of Q4P that can ponder itself.

Take a moment to consider that. In all the universe, Q4P has been steadily creating more and more Complexification. Yet, what they created was always a passive creation. It could only show itself as a product of Q4P.

Suddenly, enter humans. We represent so much complexity that we are actually self-aware of that fact. Q4P finally had created something that could actually be aware of itself. Consider yourself reading this as you ponder the very nature of the universe. Think about the complexity involved to make you, so your mind could do this.

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Self-awareness is a launching off point for so many things that make us human. Without this, we would be extremely limited in how we even ponder existence. Our sense of self would have no meaning. Likewise, how could we have empathy for others if we couldn’t consider them as separate individuals sharing the universe with us, capable of their own thoughts?

Self-awareness is the mother of philosophy itself. Animals can think in concrete terms. They can reason where to hunt and show emotion to their fellow pack members when they naturally have them. But they do not ponder the state of their existence in the universe or the place of their species within it. This resides solely in the realm of humanity.

Self-awareness is one of the basic foundations that lead us to explore our surroundings, drives our curiosity, and fuels our need to understand.

Which leads us into a very related novelty of humankind…

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