[Drifter]

Originally Posted by leskey Hi, all. Could consciousness be defined as, "an abstract perception of probability?"

With respect to Reality we have even greater difficulties, for whether used in the philosophic or the pragmatic senses it has had, historically, several meanings. Most commonly, at least in the western thought, this notion has been employed in relation to supposed objective existences, and this is obviously not the sense that could apply to the GREAT SPACE, which is neither objective nor subjective. We must, therefore, undertake some effort to derive the meaning that is valid for the aphorism.
Ordinarily, we think of "reality" as in contrast to the notion of "illusion," but this hardly leads to a clear understanding, since each notion becomes negatively defined by the other, and we are little,if at all, advanced to a true conception of what we feel in relation to these notions. Pragmatically, we generally have very little difficulty in differentiating between many illusions and relative realities, such as a mirage lake and a real lake, but this is not enough to define for us what we mean when these terms are extended to a metaphysical usage, For clearly, as a bare, visual, sense-impression, the mirage lake is as authentic as the real lake. We might say that as aesthetic modification of consciousness the one is as real as the other, but the distinction of reality versus illusion arises when some judgment is added to the pure aesthetic modification. But a judgment does not give reality; it gives truth or error. If the judgment produces an error, then we are obsessed by an illusion; otherwise there is no illusion. It would appear that this identification of illusion and error leads to the conclusion that the other of illusion is not reality but truth, and this opens a door for analysis that is much more fruitful.
scroll to pg. 410 for continuance http://books.google.com/books?id=ZnTfTNTXTzAC&pg=PA409&lpg=PA409&dq=with+r espect