Consciousness concerns the feelings that accompany science and therefore signifies the awareness of what is happening in us. It is that inner knowledge that each has of good and evil; it forms the judgment that everyone does of his feelings according to the relationship they have with the principles of morality.
Formerly, with consciousness was meant something different from what is considered today in the psychological and philosophical settings. Not all the ancients divided man in mind and body. Indeed, there was a widespread idea that man had three functions relatively independent called "intellectual center", "center motor-instinctive" and "emotional center", located respectively in a part of the brain, in the final part of the spine (where once humans had the tail) and in the area of the solar plexus, in what are now called "the sympathetic and parasympathetic ganglia." "Consciousness" indicated that inner state of harmony between the three centers which, if reached, allowed man to elevate his own reason.
Traditional psychology indicates as consciousness a general function of its human capacity to assimilate knowledge. At first there is awareness, that is, active observation of the new knowledge; when this is followed by the final breakthrough of the new as part of the old, we can speak of consciousness.
This function, applied to the succession of phenomena of knowledge (not only sensory) generates the phenomenon of consciousness. As a dynamic phenomenon that continues over time can be identified as a real process.
• Consciousness - in ethics, can be defined as the ability to distinguish between good and evil, to act accordingly, as opposed to unconsciousness.
• In philosophy, consciousness acquires a theoretical value in those authors who understand it as interiority and make of the return to consciousness the recollection in themselves, the main tool to capture basic truths, otherwise inaccessible. Throughout the history of philosophy has assumed special and specific significance distinguishing itself from the generic term of awareness, activity with which the subject comes into possession of a knowledge.
The term consciousness has taken over the history of philosophy specific and particular meanings standing out from the generic term of consciousness to which is sometimes equated. The American philosopher John Searle joins awareness to self-consciousness: "Consciousness is a set of states and subjective processes. They are states of self-awareness, inner qualitative and individual. Consciousness is then that thing that begins to appear in the morning, when from the state of dream and sleep we pass to the waking state and continues for the duration of the day until the evening, when, returning to sleep, we become unconscious. The term consciousness is thus brought to psychoanalytic terminology that considers it as a condition of conscious attention as opposed to the unconscious situation of sleep.
As part of the consciousness philosophy has meant not only sensory data but also the complex interiority represented by feelings, emotions, desires, products of thought, as well as the sense of personal identity.
The process of the analysis of the inner life is called introspection that can sometimes be confused with reflection improperly understood as synonymous.
In Stoicism and Platonism to refer to consciousness meant to relate to the inner "voice", to that "dialogue of the soul with itself" which characterized the final production of the dialogic Platonic works where the literary and philosophical form of dialogue with an interlocutor vanished replaced by that of the monologue. The wise man of post-classical period of Greek philosophy is then the very one that moving away from worldly things and passions reflect on itself.
In defining consciousness, the philosophical vision seeks to grasp, therefore, the sense of knowing and describing the forms, especially those ‘a priori’, of its configuration, that means the dialectic that pervades the relationship of subject and object; in contrast, the scientific conception takes care of how this activity is achieved.
In the Kantian Critique of Practical Reason morality is understood as the voice of conscience, of our interiority, which claims the absolute value of the moral law sometimes misled by our sensitive inclinations.
According to Kant, taking up the ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, is this a moral experience that unites all men regardless of their different cultural and intellectual conditions.
The Kantian statements were in contrast to the relativist morality of Renaissance that already with Michel de Montaigne in the Essays (1580), made it clear that in reality the so-called moral safe principles that vary according to the different areas of origin are inculcated in the child's mind that reached the 'adulthood, forget their origin and believes that those values are innate and have always been present in their consciousness.
With Descartes the term consciousness takes on the meaning of "subjective awareness" of himself, a direct consciousness of ourselves as to be safe while all mental contents of which we are conscious are only "ideas".
This Cartesian conception is found throughout the English empiricism up to David Hume who arrives to solipsism, (i.e. the belief that everything the individual perceives is created by his conscience) because he argues that thought can go to the limits of universe but always remaining within the essential purview of consciousness and knowing only sensitive "impressions" or "ideas" of reason without any cognitive certainty.
Against this interpretation reacted Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason where it distinguishes empirical consciousness, based on the single individual sensitivity and such to belong only to ourselves individually, and a consciousness in general or "transcendental apperception" that is expressed in the '' I think ", an activity of thought that belongs to all men, but to none of them in particular, structurally identical in all as a formal activity of knowing which is realized through ‘a priori’ synthetic judgment through the different" categories ".
The Kantian ‘I think’ will become the ‘absolute I’ of Fichte and of the first Schelling: while the individual ‘empirical ‘I’ is found to be always limited by the ‘non-I’, the objects, in the theoretical and practical activity, the absolute ‘I’, principle of all reality, in opposition to the ‘non-I’, in an original self-awareness activity, self-production (self-knowledge) and self-creation.
The intentionality, originally a concept of scholastic philosophy, was reintroduced in contemporary philosophy by the philosopher and psychologist Franz Brentano in his work 'Psychology from the empirical point of view'.
With the intentionality of consciousness or mind is meant the idea that consciousness is always directed to an object, which had always a content. Consciousness is so tense to the knowledge of the outside world while man with self-consciousness will become aware of his rationality as connected to reality.
The understanding of consciousness as awareness of something is found in the twentieth century in the philosophy of Husserl and some authors of existentialism such as Jean Paul Sartre's, Karl Jaspers.
The necessary reference of consciousness towards an object is called by Husserl, in the work ‘Ideas for a pure phenomenology’, "intentionality" and this meaning has penetrated into contemporary research, both in the continental and analytical philosophy.
In many cultural systems, consciousness is likened to the soul. However, the metaphysical sense of consciousness is only a philosophical abstraction that originates from different religious beliefs as a pure act of faith.
As a conclusion, it is in the consciousness and by virtue of the same, that cognitive science and cognitive psychology - but also, more generally, knowledge and cognition - find their common ground: that unity to which both can be traced. A unity that keeps the duality, and therefore the differentiation that justifies the multipliciy of experience, but also transcends it, in the ideal value that is intended to express.
Awareness is itself, in my own opinion, part of consciousness. There won't be conscience without consciousness.Conscience is the-going-beyond consciousness in determining moral imperative: it is the part of transcendent consciousness that aligns itself with Kant's categorical imperative!
Traditional psychology indicates as conscience a general function proper of human capacity to assimilate knowledge. At first, there is awareness, that is, active ascertainment of the new knowledge; when this is followed by the final breakthrough of the new as an integral part of the old, we can speak of consciousness.
This function, applied to the succession of phenomena of knowledge (not only sensory) generates the phenomenon of conscience. As a dynamic phenomenon that continues over time and can be identified as a real process.
Within consciousness philosophy has meant not only to bring us the sensory data but also the complex interiority represented by inner feelings, emotions, desires, products of thought, as well as the sense of personal identity.
Gianrocco, Consciousness is an extremely interesting and in many ways highly complex phenomenon . Your brief description of various ways to approach it shows how many have attempted to describe it. Up until earlier this year no author had provided any illustrations that combine a conceptual vision with scientific evidence . In August 2015 myself along with two other authors have proposed a model that can be visualized by all and it includes brain, autonomic nervous system, neurological disorders , psychology, mind-body response and many other disciplines .
I have had a good response and would welcome any comments.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280626837_A_unified_3D_default_space_consciousness_model_combining_neurological_and_physiological_processes_that_underlie_conscious_experience
Article A unified 3D default space consciousness model combining neu...
Prof Tucci,
Some thoughts on this interesting topic:
Philosophical thoughts on conscience may be traced back to Cicero.
In physiological context, It would be futile to separate the phenomenon of awareness from conscience, since both these concepts are inherently embodied within the theory of mind. Conscience is not unique to humans only, since animals also show the power of conscience (they also learn which actions are right or wrong, albeit to some extent). However, animals lack awareness about the self, whereas humans are aware about what it is to be like self-conscious. Since both are neurological phenomena, one is inseparable from the other. Mental state of Consciousness is born out of organizational complexity of the brain, so is awareness. Although we are conscious most of the time, we may not be aware all the time. Awareness demands attention and conscience demands the power of judgment, although it is purely a sensory phenomena.
Judgments require selective concentration on discrete aspects of information. Judging an action based on moral values or norms which are of course unique to human beings require information processing, knowledge assimilation, and decision making. Conscience also necessitates the power of judgment, and so it is contextual: i.e., it is context and situation-dependent, as much as awareness which is dependent on context and the perception of time.
However, some experts of mind claim that conscience does not fully explain morality: conscience is a state of feeling which is intrinsic, sensorial, and perceptual: morality is based on ethical norms and values. Conscience is an imbedded (embodied) concept; it is more or less related to sensory feelings of remorse, regret, or guilt, although both conscience and judgment require the power of attention (or awareness). However, since conscience is pre-programmed in human behavioural repertoire, one may be morally correct yet her conscience may state otherwise. Or, one’s conscience may not reflect the collective ethical norms of probity (this is an exception, but rare). Anyway, understanding conscience may help us to understand morality, since the two concepts are intrinsically linked. The origin of conscience, hence, I believe is as old as the origin of awareness, since morality is a derived phenomenon of conscience, whereas, awareness being a sensory-motor behaviour, is often linked to conscientiousness. Conscience is not a behaviour, it is a feeling; awareness is both a behavioural reaction and feeling.
Reference:
Hewett, Edwin C. "Conscience and morality." (1889).
Regards, Sidharta
In addition to our consciousness of language-supported cognition, I propose that visual thinking, musical thinking, and other characteristically human systems of embodied thought may be considered nonverbal symbolic systems, and may be included in a working definition of the concept of consciousness.
Another sort of nonverbal consciousness may be a meditative state of awareness of external and internal sensations, while verbal thoughts are gently excluded from our field of attention.
Dear Gabriel and David,
I agree to your above conclusions that the mental functions of consciousness are supported by language, whereas it is also factual that a specific nature of consciousness supports comprehensibility.
But I also want to make a point that language is an essential, but not the only precondition for an entity to be "conscious", since, someone who has lost the ability to communicate verbally is not unconscious, neither unaware.
Also, humans are not the only species that possess neural correlates of consciousness, given that animals also possess similar neural correlates of conscious awareness.
As David has mentioned above, there are nonverbal aspects of cognition and consciousness. A child who does not have the ability to verbally communicate (having phonological disorders) with others (as assessed using Griffiths Mental Development Scale) is fully conscious as well, since he/she has the same neurohumoral correlates which a normal child has, irrespective of the fact that the child is voiceless, or autistic. Language is a facilitator, a mode of communication mechanism to understand each other, and express thoughts and ideas. Yes, it is an indispensable aspect of human cognitive development. Autistic children have the problem to have meaningful conversations with others since they fail to comprehend the meaning of spoken words, besides other cognitive impairments.
It would be futile to consider that language is the only necessary condition to be conscious, since deaf and dumb children, and those children with developmental disabilities similar to autistic spectrum are fully conscious of their self-existence. What they lack is perhaps the capacity to socialize, communicate meaningfully, and express their thoughts synchronously.
Early intervention programs aimed towards communication enhancement, medical treatments, and behavioural therapy may ameliorate their problems to some extent; but to say that they are not fully conscious is pointless. Indeed they are fully conscious, but they lack the ability to convey. The role of symbolic systems as a mediator of communication between children with developmental disabilities with the normal ones has been discussed elsewhere. There are specific tools and therapeutic interventions which aim to improve their capacity to communicate and understand others.
For more on language disorders, see an excellent article here:
Language disorders and autism
https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2005/182/7/7-language-disorders-and-autism
Best regards, Sidharta
In evolutionary terms nonverbal modes of thinking are, of course, far older than verbal modes, and are thus more basic to our mental experience. I don't mean to underestimate the role of language in conscious thought, but I have observed that in some academic circles nonverbal modes have not received the attention they merit.
The study of nonhuman consciousness, especially in nonhuman primates, can give us insight into the nature of our own consciousness.
A month ago I posted a thematic bibliography on "Art in the embodied mind." The first section includes recent publications relating to the emergence of visual aesthetic creation, which, like the emergence of language (also included in this section), is essential for understanding the emergence of modern human consciousness (by "modern" I mean anatomically modern humans of the last 200 thousand years or so). The second section has several studies on the theoretical aspects of the concept of consciousness. Perhaps followers of this thread may find it interesting. It can be viewed and downloaded here:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280949470_Art_in_the_embodied_mind_a_bibliography_%28updated_August_14_2015%29
Data Art in the embodied mind: a bibliography (updated August 14, 2015)
Ravinder, I printed out the article you coauthored and posted here, and I'm reading it at present. It looks to me like cutting-edge stuff. I don't know enough about biology to comment on the technical aspects of your new model, but what you are saying fits well with the blurry ideas I have from earlier readings and from the introspective observation of my own consciousness. I like how you fit in Arnold Trehub's model as well; I think his work has been underutilized in the literature on consciousness theory. Also, the illustrations are extraordinary! I shall certainly recommend this paper to students and colleagues interested in embodiment.
Dear Ravinder,
Your idea regarding an unified 3D default space for mind is an interesting concept which goes beyond the conventional paradigm and debates over the nature of mind (physical or immaterial) to explain what consciousness really is- that it is a physical phenomenon having embodied spatial characteristics, not anything like an immaterial entity that cannot be reduced by conventional methods in neuroscience, as ferociously debated throughout the literature of the mind.
Your idea about space is a novel concept, particularly interesting to conceive the notion that there could be a space for mind which gets filled up with transduced bits of sensory information which creates a 3D internal vision of the external world. In fact, some time back, I also conceived a similar idea to propose or hypothesize that mind is dimensional, needs space, and therefore has the capacity to hold information in physical state- since it is a physical space within the brain. Perhaps your elaborations are far better since I was not able to conceive any clear idea about where that space could be, but want to summarize from my viewpoint which I quote from my yet to be published paper on the theory of mind (2013); I called this space 'Auenonic' Space- a hypothetical space for the mind.
"...But mind is something though invisible, it does in reality, is something which might essentially occupy some space, is material and hence, spatial. So, what could have been such a place in the brain which could hold all our thoughts, emotions and feelings? For this, I propose a hypothetical space for mind- the “auenon” which is a space that fills up with concepts experienced, memories converted from thinking and everything that is contingent upon the physical; that is, everything which are reliant on the reality. I deeply assume that, it is this ―the “auenonic” space, or something alike, which could be a hypothetical space for mind if we consider mind as having dimensionality and spatiality, which appear to be proximately immaterial, but contingently it may be the opposite."
On the Matter of Mind as Something Proximately Immaterial: Mind in the 'Auenonic' Space
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2274863
Best Regards, Sidharta
Sidharta, I read the abstract and the conclusion of your paper on mind. You have certainly raised many questions and pointed to the presence of a space within our minds . I particularly like these statements from conclusion. " At the foremost, it is foolhardy to search for the content of consciousness without assuming anything in the first place about “the space” where such contents are held in the mind. . This research hence digs a tunnel in that direction, to appear on the other end with some hope for the future where new glimpses of light could be seen from the other end of the dark and gloomy tunnel. Understanding the inexplicable aspects of dualism in the light of materialism is a biggest challenge, a challenge which is however, worth defending in the long run.■
I agree that the time is here for finally understanding the fundamental aspects of consciousness. Human beings are highly visual individuals who can understand very complex process like universe or weather forecasts by dynamic satellite videos. If picture is worth a thousand words , 3D art and animation is many fold that. Those who mind-body response techniques are finding the infinite space within. In fact our trillions of electrically charged interconnected cells form that around our sensory hub. It became quite clear to me when I analyzed the loss of orientation of left half of external space with loss of the feeling of left half of body in patients who get right parietal lobe damage (contralateral neglect syndrome) . After that this model has been applied to many other conditions. I would welcome any comments regarding this article and theory. Regards.
Dear Ravinder,
Thanks for going through my articles; but as I have said, i had no clue about the neuroscientific aspects which you have proposed, thanks to the avanced models and visual cues that you have included in your hypothesis.
In fact, I can foresee that this hypothetical space of mind- the "auenonic space" of mine, or your "3D space of mind", or any other similar proposal, would certainly catch up with the new science of consciousness once the theoretical barriers are overcome with experimental evidences that proves the spatial nature of the human mind.
Ravinder, I continue to read your article and I am trying to understand it to the best of my limited capacity. I have a question for you: how does recent research on the role of hippocampal neurons in the formation of mental spatial maps fit in with all of this? I am thinking particularly of the research by O'Keefe and the Mosers that was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine last year (see attached press releases), as well as the note published by Jeffery and Casali in the journal Current Biology, freely available online:
Jeffery, Kate; Casali, Giulio (2014). “Hippocampal neurons: simulating the spatial structure of a complex maze," in Current Biology (Elsevier), vol. 24, no. 14 (http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(14)00678-2?_returnURL=http%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982214006782%3Fshowall%3Dtrue, access: 22 September 2015).
Kate Jeffery has a ResearchGate profile with additional articles on related topics.
David, Thank you for sending the very interesting study by Jeffery and Casali. Their conclusion :lThis new study [7] adds to the growing weight of evidence that the hippocampus engages in active, offline construction and consolidation of internal environmental representations. More than this, however, it reinforces the venerable but much disputed idea, first advanced by Tolman [8], that this internal representation mirrors the real world in a truly map-like way.
The observation here regarding hippocampal neuron activity mirrors the external world internally further reinforces the 3 D default theory . I would certainly include it in my future articles. Hippocampal integrates with thalamus and its dynamic networking would allow cortico-thalamic processing needed in memory of the external space . Thank you .
You're welcome, Ravinder. There seems to be a coherent, if somewhat blurry, pattern emerging regarding how our bodies (in context) generate the experience of consciousness. These are exciting times!
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