12 - Information Literacy: What Consciousness and Cognition Can Teach Us

Summary

Introduction

To begin with, there is the need to determine just what ‘theory’ offers to the research into a field such as information literacy. No one expresses this more cogently and eloquently than Habermas:

The mediation of theory and praxis can only be clarified if to begin with we distinguish three functions, which are measured of different criteria: the formation and extension of critical theorems, which can stand up to scientific discourse; the organizations of processes of enlightenment; in which such theorems are applied and can be tested in a unique manner by the initiation of processes of reflection carried on within certain groups toward which these processes have been directed; and the selection of appropriate strategies, the solution of tactical questions and the conduct of the political struggle. On the first level, the aim is true statements, of the second, authentic insights and on the third, prudent decisions.

(Habermas, 1973, 32)

The last sentence is particularly applicable to the discussion of consciousness and cognition, and, indeed, the entirety of the contents of this volume. The importance of ‘theory’ is to enable ‘praxis’ to become as effective as possible. For example, Richard Haass (2023) says that, to participate fully in a democracy, the citizenry must first be informed (this is number one in his list of people’s obligations). The very idea of theory may seem a bit foreign, but when we connect it to work on consciousness, we see that the practice of information literacy can flourish. That is the message Habermas leaves us with; in the present instance, the theory of consciousness can lead to a more complete understanding with how individuals can think through information. That is, people who think critically are able to employ information to make reasoned decisions. What follows in this introductory section is the debate regarding consciousness, where it resides and how it works.

There has been something of a tradition among many neuroscientists and philosophers of mind to adopt a monist position regarding the brain. That is to say, there is an explicit use of Cartesian dualism (the view that there is both a body and a spirit or soul and that the mind resides in the soul, even as the brain is a part of the physical body).