To begin this exploration of awareness as it operates on and within the context of matter, we might ask ourselves what is the most fundamental property of matter that all life must be aware of to be aware of anything at all. By “all life”, we mean all life that has ever lived – people, dogs, jellyfish, trees, ferns, moss, algae, amoebas… all of it. Stated differently, if we take away every property of matter we can think of, what is left that we can’t remove and that all life would most certainly confront?
Awareness of the existence of any distinct thing fundamentally depends on size. One object of perception at minimum can be compared to another with respect to size – one is larger, one is smaller, or they are the same. Any distinct thing is smaller than its surroundings.
Notice that “small” and “large” are mutually dependent terms. As suggested in Figure 1 above, “small” has no meaning without “large” and “large” has no meaning without “small”. To describe one of the two objects shown as either “small” or “large” requires an assessment of the size of the other. “Smaller” and “larger” implies a relationship between objects.
In addition to their mutually implied meaning, the concepts of “small” and “large” also imply the concepts of “part” and “whole”. “Part” and “whole” are also mutually dependent terms with respect to meaning. The idea of a “whole” suggests at least two smaller “parts” that are combined to yield the “whole”. Similarly, the idea of “parts” suggests a larger object that incorporates all of those parts. The mutual implication of “part” and “whole” entails a one-way hierarchal “fit”. Smaller parts can combine to form larger wholes, but larger wholes cannot combine to form smaller parts. Instead of combining, wholes must be split apart to form smaller parts. As these relationships suggest, every part is a whole containing even smaller parts, and every whole is a part of something even larger. The entire world is a “whole” comprised of “parts” consisting of everything that exists within the world.1
As concepts, “part” and “whole” also imply “inside” and “outside”. Here again, we encounter ideas with mutually dependent meanings. As shown in Figure 2 above, the larger whole object is “outside” the smaller part or parts. The smaller part or parts are “inside” the larger whole.
As we develop these ideas in subsequent chapters, we’ll see that the parts of a living organism are best understood as functional tasks that together, continually make wholes from parts. Throughout the life of the organism, the same tasks – for example, assembly of a specific protein – remain or return with different instances of matter parts as needed to provide the organism with the resources required for its own survival. This is an important concept worth repeating: a “task” is a permanent functional process involving temporary material parts. As a result of these repeated tasks, over time, the same whole organism remains despite a significant – or even an entire – change in matter parts. 2
1 For a classic philosophical analysis of this issue, read Immanuel Kant’s Second Antinomy in his Critique of Pure Reason.
2 Relating this concept back to awareness, in later chapters, we’ll suggest that the living organism as a whole is aware, but its parts are not.
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