Education and the Philosophical Ideal by Horatio W. Dresser - Read the Complete Text for free at NewThoughtLibrary.com

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Horatio W. Dresser's

Education and the Philosophical Ideal

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Preface - Introduction - The New Point of View - Educational Ideals - Equanimity - The Subconscious Mind - The Spiritual Ideal in Childhood - An Experiment in Education - The Expression of the Spirit - An Ideal Summer Conference - The Ministry of the Spirit - The Mystery of Pain and Evil - The Philosophical Ideal - The Criteria of Truth - Organic Perfection - Immortality - Index - p. 247

an examination of the question, How can consciousness exist? reveals the great truth that it is neither possible nor good alone. It most be consciousness of something. It most also be consciousness by a self or soul that is conscious. The very life of consciousness is knowledge of relations, of objects which are brought into intimate relation with our perceptive organism.

Furthermore, consciousness is possible only through change, activity, life. We cannot dwell on one set of relations long at a time. There must be external movement as the source of internal awareness. Consciousness without life is impossible. But life is a system of relations.

In general terms, consciousness is the inner translation into the percepts and concepts by which the mind pictures or represents the world of relations. In other words, consciousness is organic. It is not the totality of being, as some have assumed. The universe is not a mere world of thought. It is not a merely conscious representation, with nothing represented. Relations are real. Change is real. Evolution is a living fact. It is the function of consciousness to report what transpires in the real, living world of time and space relations.

Thus a critical examination of what we mean by consciousness, leads us step by step out of the subjective, egoistic world into the world of Spirit, nature, and human society, without which even the most limited consciousness is impossible. This apparently commonplace conclusion is really the

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