Christian de Quincey on Consciousness: Truth or Wisdom?

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In this thought-provoking talk, Christian de Quincey addresses three fundamental issues that have pervaded his studies as a philosopher: How do we integrate philosophical truth and spiritual wisdom? When and where did consciousness of mind first occur in evolution? Given that we have a world of both mind and matter, how are they related?

As he describes his efforts to resolve these issues over several decades of study, three worldviews are critiqued from a philosophical standpoint: Dualism, where mind and matter are two separate, radically different realities (but if so, how do they ever interact?); Materialism, where reality is exclusively physical and consciousness is a by-product of matter as it evolves more complexity (but how does it jump from objectivity to subjectivity, without a non-physical “miracle?”); and Idealism, where consciousness is the ultimate reality and matter is an illusion (but we don’t live in this world in a manner consistent with this theory – a performative contradiction that weakens the philosophical argument). Deeming that all three fall short of providing a satisfactory explanation, he promotes the theory of Pan-psychism, which assumes that everything material is also mental – that both are real and inseparable. He persuasively concludes there can be no embodiment without some form of consciousness.

In Part 2 of this audio presentation, Christian posits a mode of reasoning that can honor both pre- and post-conquest consciousness and why it is so important. Different ways of knowing create different ways of being, as evidenced not only in different cultures and races, but genders and age groups. Truth (through reasoning) and wisdom (through spiritual insight) can both flourish only when the relational aspect of different modes of consciousness is embraced.

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