Hierocles y la génesis de la conciencia

Abstract

Through the appropriation concept (oijkeivwsi~) stoicism achieved to work out a notion of consciousness or self-awareness (suneivdhsi~Ésunaivsqhsi~) certainly not yet present at the classic period. Both concepts have their roots in onto-epistemic considerations, which have in the perception (ai[sqhsi~) or, exactly speaking, in the aisthetic faculty (aijsqhtikh; duvnami~), its genesis as well as its permanent and reciprocal articulation. In this regard, Hierocles, stoic philosopher who probably lived in the second century a. D., in his work Elementa Moralia (PBer. Inv. 9780v) with all sorts of details sets forth how, beginning from which moment, and under which circumstances all animals, as soon as they are born, have continual and uninterrupted self-awareness or at least a sense of themselves. Consequently, in order to shape a notion of self-awareness which has its genesis and its articulation by virtue of the aisthetic faculty, in other words, its development depends on it, Hierocles made use of sunaivsqhsi~ rather than the traditional term suneivdhsi~. His concern, therefore, is to highlight that the percipient as soon as it perceives something, simultaneously co-perceives itself along with the perceptible object and from here on by itself establishes the corporeal-spatial boundaries of its own constitution.