im going to start playing in the metaphysics for a moment.
im not convinced that the animists were wrong. what if life is a normal characteristic of matter, like mass and volume, and is present in variable amounts, just as mass and volume, but maybe along a different axis?
this is a meaningless supposition unless having life also has something that corresponds to silver's list of biologically appropriate measures from ^^^above. after all, what's th epoint of calling a rock "alive" if it doesn't correspond to anything else that we call "alive?" this immediately brings up seer's question-- could "life" correspond to more than the biological list? here we run into both earthly ghosts and the questuon as to whether the stars sing for joy.
this is closely related in my mind to the idea of consciousness, since consciousness appears to be a characteristic of "higher" life--whatever that is-- and may therefore be a defining characteristicof life itself, present in difeent quantitites
But wouldn't consciousness insert itself into the broader definition of reaction to stimuli? Even if it's just brain chemistry. It's a special case of being aware and in the case of 'higher animals' like humans, being aware of their awareness. Not only do we know we exist and that one day will die, we know that we are conscious. Taking it a step further, I wonder if it's possible to gain an even higher consciousness than we humans have, what would that even look like?
Anyway, I'm just rambling.
As far as we know, you need a nervous system in order to be conscious. Not all animals have a centralised nervous system -- some have a diffuse nervous system (jellyfish, for instance) and others don't have a nervous system at all (like sponges). Is a sponge conscious or do they simply low-level react to their environment? Where is the threshold between consciousness and non-consciousness? Or is it a spectrum?
Though obviously not animals, plants are "aware" on some level of other plants in their surroundings, even communicating with them through chemicals and ground networks of roots and fungi, but aren't generally seen as conscious beings. But they're definitely alive.
I don't know. Unless you broaden the meaning of the word "consciousness" to include other non-mental states it seems to be restricted to animals with nervous systems, at least.
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