aware of awareness #5

If all bodies have the same nature, what importance does self-consciousness make? Just because everyone’s nature is the same doesn’t make every individual the same. This deeper sense of meaning allows humankind to have order and emotions such as jealousy, pity, empathy, sympathy, and admiration. I was struck by Ellen Dissanayake’s quote; “Chimpanzees, it has been discovered, recognize themselves in a mirror. But it would seem that no chimpanzee know that he is aware of himself” (Dissanayake 114). To be aware of awareness is like being aware that you have feet therefore knowing you can walk. Yes all humans who have seen themselves in a mirror are self-conscious but without that definitive reflection, are humans still aware of their own body within the body or are they only looking upon the surface? Humans simply have a better way of communicating with other humans by showy means of making special through style, which inherently affects sociality with stereotypes and appearance. Within animals, appearance is less important unless a deformation makes it harder to mate and fit their niche. Animals group for the common good of food and reproduction and in order to perceive, one has to be perceived by other living things in order to exist. But what exactly are others looking at? Could these surface reflections be lying to us as Plato’s allegory of the Cave suggests? The shadows that the enlightened man sees are true to him as well as the other cave dwellers until he leaves the cave only to seek “reality.” In actuality a mind in which we think, exists. The feet we are aware of know what to do in order to walk. If chimps are aware of their reflection they must know what they are looking at, they just don’t care if the reflection is them or their neighbor because specific outer perception is unimportant to how they carry about their lives.