Letter: Letters: No mystery

From ROBIN PEARCE

Are people really still chasing the rainbow of ‘What is consciousness?’
(8 January)?

Rather than being the biggest mystery of all time, surely consciousness
is something we understand most intimately. Consciousness is the only thing
that we understand first hand; it is something we understand better than
anything else.

The real mystery arises when we try to understand and describe the outside
world in terms of our conscious feelings.

It is then that words are needed to describe and communicate our understanding
of the outside world, and that we are thus drawn into the ambiguities and
ineptness of language.

But don’t take my word for it.

Robin Pearce Southampton