Consciousness

Consciousness is a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and one's environment. Philosophers divide consciousness into phenomenal consciousness which is experience itself and access consciousness which is the processing of the things in experience (Block 2004).

Related Topics:
Mind - Subjectivity - Self-awareness - Sentience - Sapience - Perceive - Oneself - Environment

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Many cultures and religious traditions place the seat of consciousness in a soul separate from the body. Conversely, many scientists and philosophers consider consciousness to be intimately linked to the neural functioning of the brain dictating the way in which the world is experienced. This aspect of consciousness is the subject of much debate and research in philosophy of mind, psychology, brain biology, neurology, and cognitive science.

Related Topics:
Soul - Brain - Philosophy of mind - Psychology - Biology - Neurology - Cognitive science

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Humans (and often others as well) are variously said to possess consciousness, self-awareness, and a mind, that contains our sensations, perceptions, dreams, lucid dreams, inner speech and imagination etc.. Each of us has a subjective view. There are many debates about the extent to which the mind constructs or experiences the outer world, the passage of time, and free will.

Related Topics:
Self-awareness - Mind - Dreams - Lucid dreams - Subjective - Time - Free will

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An understanding of necessary preconditions for consciousness in the human brain may allow us to address important ethical questions. For instance, to what extent are non-human animals conscious? At what point in fetal development does consciousness begin? Can machines ever achieve conscious states? These issues are of great interest to those concerned with the ethical treatment of other beings, be they animals, fetuses, or in the future, machines.

Related Topics:
Animals - Fetuses - Machines

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In common parlance, consciousness denotes being awake and responsive to one's environment; this contrasts with being asleep or being in a coma. The term 'level of consciousness' denotes how consciousness seems to vary during anesthesia and during various states of mind such as day dreaming, lucid dreaming, imagining etc. Nonconsciousness exists when consciousness is not present. There is speculation, especially amongst religious groups, that consciousness may exist after death or before birth.

Related Topics:
Awake - Asleep - Coma - Anesthesia - Day dreaming - Lucid dreaming

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