ABSTRACT
Spirit is immanent within matter and evolution. The vehicle of this becoming is an eternal cycle of creative destruction through which higher degrees of intelligence evolve and disintegrate. Advanced intelligence and even self-consciousness developed in evolution in various animals and hominids; Homo sapiens is its inheritor. Intelligence lies in the cosmos, in nature and in all life forms. It pre-exists consciousness, which is a later development within life forms. Self-awareness is the further development of consciousness particularly characterising human beings, though it began to evolve in other species in the homo lineage, as well as existing to a limited though definite extent in certain animals, especially primates. The Self is an inner directing function of order, growth, and individuation in the human psyche and is a deeper consciousness and intelligence than that of the ego. From a materialist view human consciousness is ultimately inexplicable.
