27-07-2013, 09:07 AM
Albert Rossi Wrote:Tracy Riddle Wrote:Thomas Ligotti, in his book The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, takes the "puppet show" theme to more pessimistic extremes, where nature has accidentally created self-conscious puppets who have the illusion of free will.
There are many others who share this view. One of the more elegant is Douglas Hofstadter, esp. his recent I am a Strange Loop. What is original there is that he moves in the direction of saying that, illusory as it may be, consciousness is miraculous because it allows us each to contain a bit of everyone else, through memories, perceptions, language.
And dreams and visions I might also add.
In other words, the sub-soil of all things that we are all connected too, Jung's Collective Unconscious.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14