Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to discuss the phenomenon of life through the aspect of consciousness and in particular to analyze the role which consciousness plays in the living state (the L?state for short) as well as the consequences of the development of consciousness for the evolution of living beings. Consciousness is an epiphenomenon of knowledge. The discussion of the role of consciousness in life will have to involve an elucidation of the role of knowledge. This will be done in light of and using the ideas of the theory of the Ecology of Knowledge developed by the author (Wojciechowski, 1975, 1986, 1989). Because of the special nature of consciousness, the paper will deal with the methodological problems of the study of consciousness, and, therefore of the study of the living state