ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a sketch of that part of the meaning of consciousness that is given by the fact that consciousness arises as a product of nature. Being conscious is a necessary condition of their survival, and therefore consciousness has a positive function for them and is a boon for them. Consciousness exists, and not only in human beings: it is rather common throughout the animal kingdom. Consciousness and freedom 185 of the physical, electrochemical powers of a physical organ is not identical with that activity or with anything physical. Consciousness and freedom 189 that, contrary to appearance, is without any significance and therefore a fact that is utterly misleading from the metaphysical point of view. The soul of the organism is the subject of consciousness which is implicit in the conscious events that are associated with the organism, the entity to which the information provided by them is immediately and intrinsically addressed.
