CHAPTER XIX 



HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS 



The advances seen as the products of past evolution indi- 

 cate the progress to be expected in the future. Human 

 progress is characterized by its being a self-recognized pro- 

 gress. It is an intellectual advance, which begins when the 

 intellect first perceives itself, with a realizing sense of what 

 it is. This perception or as it is sometimes called, "apper- 

 ception," begins and continues a conduct motive radically new 

 as compared with the older ones, just as we saw in historic 

 biology new material motives made radically new structures. 



The recognition of self, is a perception of the separate- 

 ness, or difference between self and others, and it therefore 

 necessarily includes a recognition of others, and leads to 

 a knowledge of their points of similarity, as well as their 

 points of difference. Now, without entering into a psycho- 

 logical view of this mental power, we may study in it the 

 persistence of very important evolutionary laws. We may 

 observe that in discovering one's self to be a reasoning, 

 thinking creature, one also discovers the similar life qualifi- 

 cations of others ; and understands that the world is not 

 merely a compound of only two parts, the thing which 

 perceives being one part, and the aggregate of things among 

 which it lives, being the other part. It is learned that every 



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