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On the Levels of Awareness eBB, 213),

Man  is  the  being  who  Han is the being who (1) feels feels;  (2) thinks  thinks  (or believes believes): and and (3) thinks that he thinks (or believes that he believes). (2) is what may be called "existential understanding" which as such is constitutive of the very being of man, who is precisely the being who understands himself and  thinks  that  he  thinks  (or  believes  that  he  believes).  (2)  is what may be called "existential  understanding"  which  as  such  is  constitutive of  the  very  being  of  man, who  is precisely the being who understands himself  and therewith understands reality itself. This  This existential understanding may  un­derstanding  may be either authentic or inauthentic--but in either case it case it involves an understanding of self, others, and the whole. Inauthentic understanding  Inauthen­tic  understanding is an understanding which in one way or another qualifies the sola in sola gratia, iqual­ifies the  sola  in  sola  gratia, i.e., treats self and/or others as significant  as  sig­nificant or of worth  worth independently of the relation to the whole which alone which alone endows them with worth. Even  Even so, inauthentic understanding is understanding is understanding of self, others, and the whole, however distorted or pervertedper­verted, or, as it were, eccentric it may be. Since  Since existential understanding under­standing is identical with the human mode of beingis the distinctively human way of existingit is instantiated somehow in every distinctively human act, either  the  human  mode  of  being-is  the  distinctively human  way  of  existingit  is  instantiated  somehow  in  every  distinctively human act, either as authentic or inauthentic; and  and this choice is the everthe ever-present decision, the truly eschatological decision the  truly  eschatological  decision, at stake in every in every moment of human existence. Although it is not itself feeling, but  but understanding, it is the level of understanding closest to feeling and feeling and is the proximate relation of man to the concrete: it  it is, one may saymay say, man's way way-as man man, that is as the being who thinks as well as feels--of being concrete being  concrete.But if, as seems reasonable, "human consciousness is essentially  if,  as  seems  reasonable,  "human  consciousness is  essentially linguistic," i i.e., man precisely at level  man  precisely  at  level  (2), at the level of existential understanding at  the level  of  existential  understanding.. •.

"The doctrine of degrees of consciousness" doctrine  of  degrees  of  consciousness"  eBB,  213), 

Han  is  the  being  who  (1)  feels;  (2)  thinks  (or  believes):  and 
(3)  thinks  that  he  thinks  (or  believes  that  he  believes).  (2)  is what 
may  be  called  "existential  understanding"  which  as  such  is  constitutive 
of  the  very  being  of  man,  who  is  precisely  the  being  who  understands 
himself  and  therewith  understands  reality  itself. 

an  is  the  being  who  (1)  feels;  (2)  thinks  (or  believes):  and