Consciousness is the ability to accept and analyze the information. No doubt - all the animals including humans are acting as electrochemical machines some of which possess better construction. It is difficult to say, however:

what means "better" in this context

The concept of awareness: The awareness of the extent of the person's awareness of things and science, so that he is in direct contact with all the events that revolve around him, through the senses of the five...

ypes of awareness: There are many types of consciousness and forms and classifications, and before elaborating on the talk of these types it is necessary to point out that there is a false consciousness and imaginary is the set of ideas and concepts adopted by the person and convinced them, although it does not fit and correspond to the reality that lives, All forms are all in the correct understanding of things and their origins...

Automatic spontaneous awareness: Consciousness is about the performance of a particular activity, without the need for a person to make a great mental effort, so as not to hinder our ability to think about other things.

Cognitive Awareness: This type of awareness is quite different from automatic. It requires exceptional mental effort, and requires great mental abilities and skills such as intelligence, understanding, strong memory, and the ability to remember past events and expressions. Think about other things ...

Consciousness is one's ability of being aware of and responsive to activities in one's environment. Both humans and animals have consciousness but in different forms (Automatic Spontaneous Awareness consciousness is common to both humans and animals) . Granted, due to the superlative nature of the human sense of reasoning, our consciousness (cognitive awareness) level is high and better than animals due to the high degree or application of the cognitive senses in such cases.

Agree with Dr. Dickson Adom

ThATS RELATIVELY SIMPLE. It is the experience of mental states and processes, which on the one hand is controlled by perception (sensory organs) on the other hand by thinking. The consciousness that many higher animals have, e.g. the visible sensation of pain, joy or grief, attention, etc. must be distinguished from self-consciousness: Self-confidence, which probably only belongs to man, because it also includes the visualization of past and future.

K. Karthik provide a good link!

Mr.Karthik has given a useful link of ”what is consciousness ?”

Consciousness is the totality of the impressions, thoughts, and feelings which made up a person's conscious being.

Please also have a look at these useful links and PDF attachment for more definitions of consciousness..

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Can_consciousness_be_defined

https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_can_I_define_human_consciousness

https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_is_consciousness_What_is_its_nature_and_origin14

Article On the Quest of Defining Consciousness

https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-define-consciousness-scientifically

https://www.quora.com/How-do-we-define-consciousness

https://www.quora.com/What-is-consciousness

http://www.markbancroft.com/info/what-is-consciousness

http://cogprints.org/6453/1/How_to_define_consciousness.pdf

http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/2569/7/07_chapter%202.pdf

I think consciencness is about the soul not the body. Everybody knows from birth what is right and what is wrong. Moreover; all childten around the world love and help and do only good things. We often call them "angels ". This could be an explanation that we were all in Paradise before our life in earth. However; some time in our childhood; some continue to do only good things and others deviate because they become more selfish and start loving material things. Those who continue to behave properly "like angels" we say about them " they have pure heart like children"

Having thinking for so long on this phenomenon called consciousness, I have arrived to my own "definition": Consciousness is the process that emerges from an entity which:

1. process external information to create an image of the world

2. the self entity is included on that image

Because of the dynamics of the world this image is constantly changing, as the entity itself. There are levels in consciousness... depending on the amount of external information processed. The more information, the more conscious is the entity. In this way, even bacteria have consciousness, and of course animals too. We in particular, because of the amount of information processed (which depends on our "high definition" senses and our powerful brains - compared to other animals) would be the entities with highest consciousness. A computer, one might argue, then would be more conscious than us, but that would be a mistake because no Operating System fulfill the point 2 abovementioned. You might create a single program to simulate that, and thus you will have artificial consciousness to the extent of the amount and quality of external information that program can process.

Best regards.

Consciousness is a multifaceted mental operation that includes but may not be limited to the following:

• Awareness of our physical environment (e.g., sunny day, earthquake)
• Attribution of meanings in response to our awareness of the physical environment
• Self-awareness of our physical state (e.g., sleep, food, etc.)
• Self-awareness of our affect or emotions (e.g., joy, fear, loneliness, sadness, etc.)
• Attribution of meanings in response to our self-awareness of our physical state and our emotions
• Awareness of the physical state other beings: e.g., physical injury, hungry, tired
• Awareness of the affect or emotions of others
• Attribution of meanings in response to our awareness of the physical state and emotions of others

As for the second part of the question "the consciousness of animals." Animals clearly have the capacity to be aware of their needs and their environment. Most, if not all, animals appear to have the capacity to respond to the needs of their newborn. Social animals (i.e., those that live in groups) also have some capacity to be aware of and respond to the needs of others. In my mind, therefore, the issue is not whether animals have any consciousness but rather the extent to which they may (or may not) possess the types of metaconsciousness associated with higher order meaning making which humans exhibit.

Aren't we all simple electrochemical machines?

A conceptual "consciousness" should begin when the creatures take into account their own presence. Creatures, at some point, started realizing the outcomes of their own actions. Their own smells. Their body parts.

To trace consciousness in nature (in animals) we need to understand the perceptual nature of the certain species. There are mirror tests. When applied to the primates they mostly react to the mirror because they are keen visual observers. However, dogs do not anticipate the same complex behavior as chimps or bonobos do. They are not driven by the visual perception as much as we do. Smell is the main thing for them and an equivalent of the mirror experiment would be something related to its own body odor. Do dogs recognize and differentiate their own smells? Would they be surprised if they identify their own smell on an unfamiliar object/terrain? And what about less social animals like cats or rabbits? How do we understand their version of consciousness without being polluted by the implications of being a social creature?

Most people think cats have less intellect just because they don't listen to the people companion. Cats are not supposed to give or take orders. A dog or a horse looks for a social order where a cat looks for a mechanical order for her life in solitude.

To be able to understand the cognitive abilities of animals, we need to spend more time with them observing, studying etc. An alien wouldn't understand what we are doing just by looking. The cities or stadiums would look more complicated to them. They might just assume that the humans are just like the hormones and the organic material used for construction and logistics etc.

Thought provoking responses from RG members, I am following......

Consciousness is the ability to answer to questions like yours here; it is bound to the human quality (possibility/probability) of deutero-learning or double loop learning (self referential systems evolution by free choice). Animals do not have this quality of autopoietic learning and reasoning; therefore, their emotional perception is much stronger, e.g. dogs can 'read' in the face of its owner. Free ethical choice is a divine gift to humanity and it needs perpetual study and action to unfold its creative potential.

Consciousness means the state of being aware of and responsive to one's surroundings. George Miller wrote in 1962, "Consciousness is a word worn smooth by a million tongues." The term means many different things to many different people, and no universally agreed "core meaning" exists. This is odd, as we each have "psychological data" about what it is like to be conscious or to have consciousness to serve as the basis for an agreed definition.

Consciousness refers to our awareness of our own mental processes, such as our thoughts, feelings, and sensations. It is possible that we are the only beings on this planet that have this type of self awareness or level of consciousness and the ability to introspect, or look inward and examine these processes.

Consciousness is the state or quality of awareness, or, of being aware of an external object or something within oneself.

PHENOMENOLOGY = ONTOLOGY

CONSCIOUSNESS = BEING

I will say this is the use of commonsense , experiences and utmost knowledge

for the situation and environment.

Consciousness means the state of being aware of and responsive to one's surroundings. It shows a person's awareness or perception of something.

'The state of being awake and aware of one's surroundings'.

If come to animals certainly more accurate than humans in certain issues .

Typical e.g. dogs their perception is more compared to humans.

Even crows, older generations used to predict certain issues based on animal gestures.

Dear Dr MacGregor,

To address the second part of your question first - How Conscious are animals?! The answer to this question could well change our thinking towards ourselves, the animals around us and our future..

We are but slender moments of becoming (and our little life is rounded with a squeak). But, seriously - it is true - all we ever are and all that consciousness can ever aspire to in terms of intensity of experience may be bounded in a moment of time.

To make sense of this idea imagine for a moment that we had no fear of death,:- then, that being the case, we might ask 'How many years of joyless, drear and unenlightened toil would we gratefully exchange for just a few moments of awe?!'

Although, with the use of language and our imagination we can weave complex trajectories of experience through the domain of consciousness. This ability does not necessarily illuminate more brightly the moment of our being.

The Genius of the Snake.

Whilst studying at UEA I had a most profound experience. For the first time in my life I had the opportunity to become acquainted with a snake. The owner carefully removed the snake from its cage and offered it to me. Quite automatically I reached out to hold it. The owner suggested that instead of holding the snake it would be better if I remained passive and extend my arms like a tree. He said it was a tree snake and the snake’s behaviour would be more natural if I did not try to control it.

I did as he asked and he carefully laid the snake across my arms. I watched as, effortlessly, its head moved in graceful arcs as it inspected me and the objects nearby. It occurred to me that the movement of the snake’s head was precise and graceful and I wondered how this was achieved given its seemingly precarious situation, balanced as it was, on my arms. I examined the snake more closely and noticed how, with each movement of its head, the body of the snake made continual adjustments that compensated for its shifting mass.

It struck me that what I was experiencing was the genius of the snake - its will; its nature, so beautifully married to its form such that what amounted to a mathematically complex dynamic process, was as natural for the snake as breath itself.

To understand consciousness we must understand form.

Each of us, doing something as seemingly simple as walking down the street continually perform miracles of co-ordination. We may be so wrapped up in those things that we have not yet achieved that we forget that with every step, with every breath we exercise subtle skills that would befuddle the greatest engineer. We are all, each and every one of us, genius’s at being ourselves. Furthermore, the type of genius that I am trying to describe is not the hard won excellence that comes with study and trial. True genius is a thing so natural, so free, that it seems the most simple thing , and yet, to understand it, we must understand the secret of life itself.

Perhaps, on our road to sentience, we have lost something - the innate gift of form. We must, each and every one of us, search for our genius - not for its own sake - but for the sake of being and of consciousness.

As a general principle I would say that until we can prove otherwise every living thing should be considered to be conscious. Furthermore, we may also speculate that it is not ourselves who most rejoice in the waters of being, but those with whom we share our world - function made manifest - the animals.

Ok the first part of your question:

I just wrote this on a previous thread - I liked it and it is appropriate so here it is again..

I believe that this question holds the key to understanding, not only ourselves and our ontology, but also it is the key understanding the Universe itself However, this 'understanding' requires a leap of the imagination.

Philosophy of Mind is characterised by a set of seemingly intractable problems - qualia, intentionality, phenomenal space and time..etc. Are these problems as difficult to solve as they seem?, or, are the difficulties we encounter a consequence of the cognitive stance that we are adopting toward them - the fundamental assumptions that we are making?

Many scientists and philosophers who are interested in the problem of consciousness adopt a position that can be loosely illustrated by using a metaphor.

The metaphor is also intended to help us make a step forward. It is accompanied by a statement. The statement does not form a logical component of the story - it simply lurks in the background and waits for the right time to reveal its true significance.

The statement is - 'Consciousness Exists!'.

Ok - the metaphor:-

The problem (consciousness) must first be situated within a context - in this case - we shall use a stage in a theatre. We shall call this stage space and time. Our problem - consciousness, is represented by a character in the play.

The way in which we have intuitively set up the problem leads us to suppose that the answer to our problem - What is consciousness?, is to be found by analysing the interaction between Consciousness and the other characters on the stage. - physics! This is a mistake!

Consciousness IS the stage. The play and all of its characters are simply the way in which the stage - space and time - is structured! The stage and the play are really the same thing!

If you are looking for consciousness then you are looking in the wrong place!

Chris

Defining consciousness as a state of awareness or being aware of one's surroundings doesn't answer the question of what consciousness actually is.

It just begs the question of what is awareness?

To be aware of one's surroundings requires an interaction between any of the five senses and the environment. So what if the functioning of the senses of an individual, who remains living, were to suddenly cease? Would they no longer be conscious? One could argue 'they would still be conscious,' providing introspection and cognitive processing that underpins thought remains intact - these thought processes could, perhaps, maintain a state of internal awareness and therefore consciousness.

But would any such thought processes be possible in someone who has never historically experienced any interaction with the surrounding environment?

How would thought be possible in the absence of previous learning? And how would learning be possible in the absence of any past or present interaction with one's surroundings?

So if the inception of cognitive processing ultimately requires interaction of the senses with the environment, then consciousness cannot be possible without, at least, historical possession of any of the senses.

Therefore, consciousness is the gestalt representation of input of the senses and cognition - by that logic, animals would be predicted to have some form of consciousness.