The role of language (communication) in consciousness.

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Language is more than just sounds.

Language conveys meaning.
Apart from consciousness, there is no meaning.
Apart from meaning, there is no consciousness.

The mirror does not reflect itself.

The ruler does not measure itself.
The scale does not weigh itself.

Can consciousness be conscious of itself?  It seems so,

but can consciousness understand consciousness?
Not necessarily.

Idealist monism and neurological physicalism seem to be at odds,

because one can feel pain due to an external stimulus,
and yet feel no pain at all, due to drugs or certain brain surgeries.
What causes pain?  What prevents pain?

Similar to the above, physical impacts can cause the brain to

cease functioning, or to function in an impaired manner,
whether temporarily or permanently.

Life, consciousness and free will are inextricably interlocked.

Life is the vehicle for consciousness, without which, life would be just another set of chemical reactions with no special significance.

Without free will, consciousness would be inert.  It would be static, a prison, disabling all thought, and all reason.  Moreover, it would make of us witnesses to our own lives, but not participants.

It is no coincidence that consciousness has defied physical explanation.  There is no physical explanation of consciousness.  It does not fit into the physicalist paradigm.  This is a clear indication that the physicalist paradigm is not only flawed at the edges, it is missing something essential at its very core.  It is a house of cards, collapsing at the slightest touch of inquiry.

Indeed, it is physicalism which lacks scientific justification as a final explanation of reality.  Physical reality cannot exist apart from conscious perception. 

All arguments for physicalism rely upon abstractions, such as numbers, forces, particles and waves, and so forth.  What are any of these apart from conscious interpretation?  One might say that life arises from complexity, but the physical universe knows nothing of complexity.  It cannot distinguish between a house and a pile of rubble.  To the conscious mind, the house is very different from its materials, because the house has a plan and a purpose, and it is designed and constructed according to those.

In a purely physicalist reality, there would be no language, no communication.  Those would not exist anywhere, because nothing physical could ever give rise to them.

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