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Understanding Consciousness In George Johnson's Allegory Of The Cave

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Knowing and understanding consciousness has long been a huge mystery for most of our lives. I remember in my religion classes in high school where we looked at the “Allegory of the Cave” by Plato and the movies like “Inception” and “Matrix;” all of which took a look at what reality was and if we were aware of reality. I think that these topics are pretty similar to the idea that George Johnson was talking about in this chapter on understanding consciousness. George Johnson takes a look at whether the efforts of psychologists, neuroscientists, and philosophers have actually taken us a step forward into understanding consciousness or if we are nowhere near understanding it as the ancient Anasazi were during their time. I am looking forward …show more content…
All that remains in the ruins of Yapashi are material clues as to how these people lived and what the world was like around them. According to Johnson, consciousness is, “the undeniable presence at the core of our being,” (Johnson 156). However, to him it is still a mystery as it was during ancient times. I have to agree with Johnson in the fact that, yes we have learned a lot of information but that in no way means that we fully understand consciousness today. I can see this as being similar to the idea of the beginning of the world. In no way do I believe that we will ever reach the full truth of this universe. I believe that we are a long way off and most likely will never reach ultimate truth. There is a controversy between materialists and new mysterians on whether or not we will ever come to understand consciousness. I do think, that as humans we have this need to be able to close up holes in our understanding with any information we can find. I do wish that science could answer all of the questions, but I also don’t think that will happen. Consciousness takes place in our own minds, so that is something only we ourselves can take a look at

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