Original scientific paper

https://doi.org/10.7906/indecs.13.4.1

Consciousness, Mind, and Spirit: Three Levels of Human Cognition

Andrej Ule ; Faculty of Arts – University of Ljubljana

Abstract

The article elucidates three important concepts and realities that refer to cognitive phenomena and are often (mistakenly) used as synonyms: consciousness (slo. zavest), mind (slo. um), and spirit (slo. duh). They present three levels of human cognition: individual-experiential, individual-mental, and trans-individual-mental. Simply put: the concept of consciousness pertains to the waking mental life of a human being, while the concept of mind pertains to the ability and activity to consciously comprehend and understand contents and objects of human activity. I delineate three “types” of spirit: personal spirit, objective spirit, and the objectification of spirit in productions of human culture; I have doubts, however, about the existence of cosmic or super-cosmic dimensions of spirit, although some interpretations of quantum physics and modern cosmology suggest that such dimensions are possible.

Keywords

consciousness; mind; spirit; conceptual thought; objective spirit; personal spirit

Hrčak ID:

147675

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/147675

Publication date:

31.10.2015.

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