Awareness as Transformative

Awareness is a concept with a deep history in Western thought and remains philosophically challenging, especially in contemporary philosophy of consciousness where defining it raises the hard problem. This chapter traces the transformative power of awareness from its Western historical roots, then uses analytic philosophy to clarify its meanings and problems. Awareness is shown to be presupposed in nearly everything that matters to people and plays a transformative role in themes such as wonder, imagination, will, decision, experience, understanding, feminist consciousness, love, self-esteem, meaning, and happiness, as well as in meditation, aspiration, and transformation itself.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This chapter explores the concept of awareness: what it is, why it is philosophically problematic, and how it is presupposed in almost everything that matters to people. This chapter has three parts. The first part explores the history of the transformative power of awareness in the West. The second part employs analytic philosophy to explore meanings and problems of defining awareness and related problems in contemporary philosophy of consciousness, e.g., the so-called hard problem. The third part sketches ways awareness plays a transformative role in themes addressed in the remaining chapters of this collection (wonder, imagination, will, decision, experience, understanding, feminist consciousness, love, self-esteem, meaning, and happiness), plus three related roles: in meditation, aspiration, and transformation itself.