The Evolution of Consciousness: From Primal Unity to Objective Understanding

Today we can, with enthusiasm, trace the astonishing path of the development of human consciousness, where at the dawn of existence man and nature were seen as one whole. In those times, the boundaries between sleep and wakefulness, between reality and fantasy were blurred, and primitive consciousness manifested as emotional projection—attributing a personal face and importance to natural phenomena. It was through this immediate sensory contact that early people, like innocent children, saw in the surrounding world a reflection of their own feelings and expectations, transforming nature into something alive and self-aware.

Later, as thinking became more structured, consciousness transformed into a powerful tool for comprehending the world by converting our immediate experience into objective meaning. In this process, personal experience did not dissolve; rather, it harmoniously intertwined with the immutable laws of objective reality. Every moment of understanding—be it play, speech, or creative self-expression—reveals the enduring link between our inner life and the external world, creating a unified cosmic process where personal sensation and objective truth are one.

Thus, the development of consciousness illustrates how, from its first projections of the inner world onto nature, it evolved into a universal mechanism of understanding that unifies the subjective and the objective. This journey—from an initial oneness with nature to a meaningful perception of external reality—demonstrates that every facet of our existence, from simple sensations to complex cognitive processes, is an integral part of a universal, inspiring, and dynamic process of knowing the world.

How did consciousness arise and what role does it play in our understanding of the world? In these sources, it is suggested that the emergence of consciousness is connected to the original inseparability of man and nature, at a time when the boundaries between subjective perception and objective reality were not yet defined. In the early stages of human thought, consciousness manifested as a personal projection onto the surrounding world. Thus, the primitive human not only perceived the world as possessing consciousness, but also projected his inner feelings and expectations onto natural phenomena, thereby conferring personal character and significance upon them. This shows that consciousness arose as a means of interpreting the world through immediate emotional and sensory contact, where the distinction between sleep and wakefulness, between reality and fantasy, was vague.

Furthermore, consciousness plays a decisive role in our understanding of the world, for it allows us to transform immediate experience into objective meaning. We do not merely react to external stimuli; rather, thanks to consciousness, we perceive external reality as a holistic process that contains both the “essence” and the very fact of being aware. This not only enables us to perceive the world but also gives our understanding an objective orientation, forming what can be called objective meaning. Thus, thinking and experiencing merge into a single whole, and every act of understanding becomes part of a broader process that embodies both elements of personality and the unchanging laws of objective cosmic order.

Supporting citation(s):

"He not only has awareness of the world, but imagines that the world, like him, is conscious. Like a child who talks to his dog or to his doll as if they understand him, the savage believes that his fetish listens to what he tells it, and that the thundercloud thinks of him and chases after him. The point is that the spirit of the natural, primitive man has not yet separated from Nature and does not distinguish between sleep and wakefulness, between reality and fantasy. Thus, the divine was not something objective; on the contrary, it was the subjectivity of consciousness projected outward—a personification of the world. The notion of the divine arose from the feeling of the divine, and that feeling is nothing other than a vague, nascent sense of personality expressed outwardly. Strictly speaking, one cannot speak of a difference between the external and the internal, the objective and the subjective, in relation to the feeling of the divine. As long as the feeling of the divine is present, this distinction is not perceived." (source: link )

"Husserl and James, but not at all Avenarius with his 'pure experience,' were our guides in establishing this primary givenness. From Husserl we take his doctrine of 'essences' and, complementing it in that 'act,' 'meaning,' and 'object' constitute an initial unity that is later broken down into abstractions, we arrive at the notion of objective meaning, in which both 'essence' and 'consciousness' are inseparably present. Thinking, that is, experiencing, is an objective state; it is characterized by 'states of consciousness' as much as by 'states of objects.' That is why, at the higher levels of the evolution of objective meaning, it is possible to speak, for example, of cognition as a cosmic process, etc. As for the lower levels of objective meaning, here a smaller portion of what is called the existent 'participates,' yet even here the necessary elements of 'cognition' are evident: a fluid objective state, or objective meaning, which is later differentiated into the subject and object of cognition. We have stated that one can more easily be convinced of the presence of objective meaning in its presence and concreteness in the so-called complex states. Convinced of this, we necessarily arrive at the conclusion that every process of experiencing contains within it the seeds of this objective meaning, no matter how simple or insignificant. Every act of understanding, every process of reading, writing, playing the piano, speaking, and so on—if these processes proceed smoothly, effortlessly, without special reflection upon them—is a function of objective meaning, a function of 'pure,' as opposed to structured or complicated, consciousness." (source: link )

Thus, from the presented materials, one can conclude that consciousness arises as an initial, personal way of perceiving the world in which there is no clear division between the subjective and the objective, and then develops into a mechanism through which meaningful and purposeful cognition takes place. It becomes the channel through which the individual is integrated into the objective laws and structures of external reality, thereby ensuring a deep and comprehensive understanding of the world.