The Primacy of Consciousness as the Fundamental Error

The primacy of consciousness is the claim that consciousness has metaphysical primacy over existence, it stands as the most fundamental error, the derivative from which all other errors in philosophy stem. I am speaking here of a specific type of error, the dishonest sort, the sort which is borne from evading the facts of reality. A man can honestly attempt to discover the principles which underlie some process which he observes and fall short of the truth—this is categorically different to the man who ignores his observations and turns his mind away from reality on the premise that if he does not look then it does not exist. The error I speak of, this dishonest sort, is borne from placing an “I wish” above an “it is.” One is an error of ability (think Thales’ conclusion that water must be the fundamental element of reality because he could find it in everything and it seemingly could turn into anything), the other is an error of evasion (think the tribesman who closes his eyes to pray when faced with a raging torrent of lava crashing down towards him).