Phenomenal Consciousness Essay

Consciousness, Thomas Nagel states, “is what makes the mind-body problem really intractable.” Here he refers particularly to phenomenal consciousness, which Block defines as “perceptual experiences,” and Nagel describes as “something that it is to be.’ This experiential element appears to present a challenge to the physicalist assertion that all mental processes are explicable in terms of physical brain states, biochemical reactions and the laws of physics. Frank Jackson presents this argument in his 1982 thesis Epiphenomenal Qualia. Whilst Jackson’s argument occupies a seminal position in philosophy of mind, whether he adds anything new to knowledge of the nature of conscious experience, is debateable. Thomas Nagel’s What is it like to

Growing up the common conception of what consciousness pertains to what is done with thought. However, when taking an in-depth examination of this topic, it appears that there is more to it than that. It is one of the most familiar concepts in the world, yet, it has a mysterious factor to it. Consciousness poses a baffling problem of the mind. It raises many questions surrounding its definition and furthermore how it correlates to everything else that we know today. Chalmers in his work (put name here) attempts to define what consciousness is and two problems that make it difficult to grasp. In addition, I will seek to derive a solution to the issue surrounding comprehending consciousness.

BibliographyBooks1.Burt, C. (1962). The concept of consciousness. British Journal of Psychology, 53, 229-2422.Carlson, N., & Buskist, W. (1997). Psychology: The science of behavior (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

The fascination with consciousness dates back to the time of Plato and Descartes. Since those times the term “consciousness” has spurned controversy in many scientific fields, including the fields of biology, psychology, and neuroscience. However, with the recent advancements in brain imaging technologies, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG), human consciousness has shifted from being a subjective, abstract idea into being a observable scientific phenomenon. As neuroimaging capabilities progress, the public interest in consciousness also grows.

Consciousness refers to an individual’s self-awareness, both internally and external stimulus which include your unique thoughts, memories, feelings, sensations and environment. Your consciousness can constantly change from one conscious to another. The constant change in consciousness can also be referred to as “stream of conscious”. Awareness- its mechanism and function has

When pondering consciousness, people commonly distinguish between the physical characteristics of neurons firing signals throughout the body and the mental aspects of how being alive actually feels. Furthermore when studying consciousness, the imposing battle between physicalists, people who believe the physical and mental aspects are the same, and dualists, people who believe the physical and mental are two distinct aspects, brings about controversy. In What Is It Like to Be a Bat? Thomas Nagel claims, “it would be a mistake to conclude that physicalism must be false” but then goes on to add, “physicalism is a position we cannot understand because we do not at present have any conception of how it might be true.” Even though the claims appear mutually exclusive and Nagel states that physicalism is incomprehensible, Nagel’s claims are able to be simultaneously true and his conditions for understanding physicalism are improper.

In his text “What is it like to be a bat?” of 1974 Thomas Nagel claims that consciousness is the

Throughout the interview with Block, he stated that there are two kinds of consciousness, the access, and phenomenal consciousness. The interview straightforwardly begins, with Ned Block on the philosophical topic of consciousness by the interviewees David Edmonds and Nigel Warburton, where Block introduced the readers with one of those topics. In the beginning of the first two to three pages of the interview, Block claims that “the problem of whether conscious perception is rich or sparse” (77-78). Basically, he claims that conscious perception would either provide or limit individuals with awareness. One would either have full access of their consciousness or are limited to certain things that bypass them.

Rosenthal’s definition of what is consciousness revolves around two distinctions – creature consciousness and state consciousness. Creature consciousness is a state where an organism is simply awake and aware of surroundings, but that is all that needs to happen for an organism to be creature conscious. On the other hand, state consciousness involves mental and intentional states. In other words, there is an existence of beliefs and desires. Therefore, it is argued that state consciousness is transitive, meaning there is intentionality behind an action. In terms of phenomenal

Consciousness, a material property that is not explained in its entirety through physics, is our rational capacity for understanding the functions of human life in this world. The mind has an element in its nature that differentiates it from the physical. Understanding the functions of the mind has both an objective and subjective aspects. Consciousness is the subjective, inner life of our mind. It is based on the emotions and ideas that arise from perceiving external activities. Knowledge of consciousness comes from our knowledge of the brain and knowledge of experience. As stated by Nagel, "There are facts about conscious experience that cannot be deduced from physical facts about the functioning of the brain.” It is known that subjective experiences emerge from physical processes; however, it is yet unknown how or why this is. In order to reach an understanding of consciousness, theories based on philosophical and neuroscientific laws are being

In the field of psychology there are many terms related to consciousness. Consciousness has three main functions, restricting attention, creating a mental meeting place, and it creates a mental model of the world around us. Restricting attention is what keeps the brain from being overwhelmed by stimulation. It does this by processing what we notice and what we think about, this process is called selective attention. The degree of selective attention that someone has can vary based on the person and their ability to focus. An example of selective attention would be, when you are hungry, you are more likely to give attention the smell of food rather than the smell of something else. The mental meeting place is where sensation combines with memory,

Human curiosity has always attempted to understand the concept of consciousness. However, humanity's only definition is described as the state of being aware of one's surroundings. In a world where the mind is an undiscovered endless amount of power and self-expression, it is hard to categorize consciousness with such a vague definition. Questions also arise in regards to the very location of an individual's mind and whether it is dually connected with one's body or a separate entity entirely. The physical presence of the mind currently rests as a mystery but many theorize that its location is a part of your body or that it has no physical relation. Each individual currently has a different view on the definition of consciousness and the location of your mind rests with the belief of each individual.

In other words, what allows for the mind to recognize reality and being is something that scientific deduction cannot completely account for (Mitchell, 2015). Consciousness for him is subjective and unique being that any physical theory of the mind must first account for the subjective nature of the experience (Nagel, 1974).

In the ongoing strive to better understand the mechanism of consciousness, the possibility of discovering the neural correlates of consciousness (NCCs) is arguably the leading agenda in its scientific research. Although the question of whether consciousness can be fully reduced to its neural correlates remains debatable, it is still credible that whenever an appropriate brain process occurs, the associated subjective experience follows (Chalmers, 2013). Thus, this essay will demonstrate that it is plausible that the minimal brain processes necessary for a conscious percept can be experimentally narrowed down to a smaller coalition of neurons. Understandably, the complexity of the cortical system that is yet to be fully deciphered, along with the technological difficulties in obtaining essential data has hindered the search for the NCCs and have lead some to doubt the possibility of ever locating it (Fins & Plum, 2004). It is also likely that there are numerous NCCs, each associated with different modalities, which complicates the task further (Chalmers, 2013). For the purpose of this essay, the possibilities of discovering the neural correlates of visual consciousness are discussed in particular. This essay aims to define the foundational concepts of the science of consciousness, outline the experimental projects in finding the neural correlates of visual consciousness, and address

Define state consciousness and the phenomenal aspect of conscious (When we say a mental state is state conscious we mean to identify not only that there is a relational property that we attribute to that mental state, namely, state consciousness, but also that there is something it’s like, an affiliated phenomenal character, for the bearer of that state.)