soul-frame/research/paper-dialogues/001-deppert-evolution-des-bewusstseins/reading-notes.md

Reading notes — Deppert, Die Evolution des Bewusstseins

Status: complete (full available PDF)
Edition: PDF 17 pages / print pp. 85–101; Unitariertag 2009 Halle
Rule: reconstruct Deppert first; Soul Frame comments in brackets.

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Outline of the work

Print pp.	Topic (Deppert’s terms)
85–86	Darwin; human consciousness must be evolutionary; general definitions needed
86–87	Living being; five survival functions; consciousness as their coupling
87–89	Will to survive; final vs causal science; free will confusion
89–91	Open systems, attractors, emergence (NaCl); will as attractor
91–93	Molecular life; division of labor → first consciousness; hierarchy of wills
93–94	World-picture → human consciousness; mythical → individuality-consciousness
94–95	Libet: coupling time, not disproof of free will
95–96	Causal + final laws; non-determinism; self as part of reality
96–97	religio as Rückbindung; nature trust; cultural living beings
97–98	Inner existence / dignity / individualistic ethics; unitarian life principle
98–101	Notes + literature

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Claim log (paper-internal)

ID	Claim (Deppert)	Where	Confidence
D-01	Human faculties including consciousness must have evolutionary origin in the animal world	p.85	high
D-02	A sudden genetic jump explaining consciousness is implausible; start from a general concept of consciousness	p.85–86	high
D-03	A living being is an open system with a survival problem that it can solve for a while	p.86	high
D-04	Five survival functions are required: perception, recognition/assessment, measure readiness, measure execution, energy supply	p.86–87	high
D-05	Consciousness = organizational coupling of those functions when they are differentiated	p.87	high
D-06	Earliest life forms need not have consciousness if functions are not yet separated	p.87	high
D-07	Consciousness always involves a will to survive; functions are the differentiated expression of that will	p.87	high
D-08	Evolution of consciousness forms is evolution of will forms; will is final (goal-directed), not causal	p.87–88	high
D-09	Natural science excludes will because it admits only causal description	p.88	high
D-10	Free will does not mean freedom from what is willed; a will is bound to its aims	p.88	high
D-11	Causal determinism dogma creates a false problem for moral responsibility	p.88–89	high
D-12	Open-system attractors determine possible futures finally, not causally	p.89–90	high
D-13	Emergence: new system properties (e.g. ions vs atoms) not reducible to parts	p.90–91	high
D-14	Will enters the world as survival-will in the form of system attractors	p.91	high
D-15	First consciousness arises when division of labor requires coupling of survival functions	p.91–92	high
D-16	Cell associations form hierarchies of wills; subordinate survival-will / subordinate consciousness (herd, childhood)	p.92–93	high
D-17	Organs/cells are living beings with own strategies and subordinate will to the whole (salutogenesis)	p.93	high
D-18	Higher animals form environment representations; human consciousness requires world-picture procedures	p.93	high
D-19	Mythical world-picture = world as product of superior alien wills	p.93	high
D-20	Individuality-consciousness is cultural-historical, not genetic; each child reacquires it	p.93–94	high
D-21	Libet ~500ms conscious perception / ~150ms pre-decision activity = coupling delay, not absence of free will	p.94–95	high
D-22	World is neither fully causally nor fully finally determined	p.95–96	high
D-23	We are part of reality, shaping it via outer and inner preservation goals	p.96	high
D-24	Knowledge is never certain; religio = binding-back to what we take as reliable	p.96–97	med
D-25	Human communities are cultural living beings with survival-will and demands on members	p.97	high
D-26	Subordinate consciousness aids enforcement of community demands	p.97	high
D-27	Decisions among memberships guided by self-preservation will for outer and especially inner existence	p.97–98	high
D-28	Inner existence = human dignity; yields individualistic ethics of meaningful life	p.98	high
D-29	Responsible individuality-consciousness = unitarian life principle; Schweitzer formula	p.98	high

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Definitions to track

Term in Deppert	Working paraphrase	Open issues
Lebewesen	Open system with temporary solvable survival problem	Includes cultural groups
Überlebensfunktionen	Five functions listed	Maps to Body/Mind/energy
Bewusstsein	Coupling organization of differentiated survival functions	Collides with SF consciousness
Überlebenswille	Will expressed as those functions/coupling	Attractors as first form
Attraktor	State open systems approach and tend to stay in	Final determination
Emergenz	New properties of new systems not explainable by parts	Standard emergence
Weltbild	Representational total ordering of perceptions	Threshold for human consciousness
Individualitätsbewusstsein	Culturally evolved self-responsibility consciousness	Not genetic
Kulturelles Lebewesen	Human community as living being	Nested beinghood
Innere Existenz / Würde	Inner existence identified with dignity	Ethical layer
religio	Binding-back to what is held secure	Not theistic by necessity
Zentralattraktor	Central survival-will attractor	Used in Libet reinterpretation

Quotations worth preserving

p.86  "Ein Lebewesen ist ein offenes System mit einem Überlebensproblem,
      das es eine Weile lösen kann."

p.87  "Diese Kopplungsorganisation nenne ich das Bewusstsein des Lebewesens."

p.91  "Der Wille kommt als Überlebenswille in Form von Systemattraktoren
      in die Welt!"

p.93  "Aber erst wenn ein Lebewesen über Repräsentationsverfahren zur
      Einordnung der Wahrnehmungen in einen Gesamtzusammenhang, einem
      Weltbild, verfügt, lässt sich von einem menschlichen Bewusstsein sprechen."

p.93–94 "Das Individualitätsbewusstsein ist nicht genetisch bedingt. Es ist
        kulturgeschichtlich entstanden..."

p.97  "...sind auch die verschiedenartigen menschlichen Gemeinschaftsbildungen
      Lebewesen... als kulturelle Lebewesen..."

p.98  "Ich bin Leben, das leben will, inmitten von Leben, das leben will."
      (Schweitzer, cited)