Consciousness Trilemma

[Neo-Scholastic]

To say "I experience consciousness", subjugates consciousness to the whim of this "I".  But the shoe is on the other foot.  Consciousness posits the "I" as part of whatever this mystery might be.  That isn't to say that the "I" which consciousness creates is without any volitional power; that doesn't seem true to me.  But not all of the intentionality of the being in which the "I" has arisen is attributable to that "I".  We are not in possession of the totality of our self.  We are only a part, but not an inconsequential, purely epiphenomenal part.  We do things, but not everything we do represents the will of the "I" - and we can't easily tell which is which.  I for one am happy to have been granted this "I".  It may not be all I would like it to be but it's a nice respite from the chaos and wonder of the mystery.

There is just a little bit of a moral danger in this position. For many people the notion of self-identity is bound to their personal autonomy. One of the arguments for abortion is that a fetus is not really a person, as in a self-conscious being with identity, and therefore it is okay to kill it. Once you start going around saying things like "personal identity it an illusion" that seems to undermine the basis for self-sovereignty and the consequences of that kind of thinking are never good.