Consciousness Is Not An Illusion

Abigail Ross Dr. Mendell Philosophy 8 November 22, 2014 Throughout Rene Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy, he argues against the philosophy of his time; that all knowledge comes from the senses. Initially, he reasons that we can establish whether or not we are dreaming purely from our actions and experiences. However, after further scrutiny, realizes that we do not have any way of distinguishing between being awake and being asleep. Descartes’ dream argument sparked the idea that sense perception does not convey accurate information.

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.

Daniel Bor, a psychological researcher, and author, wrote an article titled “When Do We Become Truly Conscious” published on September 4, 2012 and in this article he discusses the idea of consciousness. Through use of deductive reasoning Bor refers to early opinions viewing consciousness as magic and discusses the science behind demystifying consciousness. Bor also discusses the ethical arguments behind learning for about consciousness. Bor also lists some of the emotional arguments centered on human awareness. Bor’s use of rhetorical strategies is designed to state his opinion in a simple and easily read way.

Consciousness is also impermanent, in more than one way. Internally-focused consciousness drifts constantly, so that we are aware of different things inside of our

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

In the First Meditation, Descartes introduces the idea that everything must be placed in doubt. He argues that everything he had known to be true came to him from the senses or through the senses. However, the senses must be doubted for at any moment, he could be dreaming or his senses could be deceived either by God or some malicious demon.

Consciousness is the state or condition of being conscious. A sense of one's personal or collective identity, especially the complex of attitudes, beliefs, and sensitivities held by or considered characteristic of an individual or a group. There are several different stages of consciousness. Waking consciousness, altered states of consciousness and sleep.

The unconscious is a group of thoughts, feelings, urges or memories that are suppressed beneath the conscious. We may think or feel something and not fully understand why that occurs, this can be considered the unconscious. These thoughts can enter the conscious by being distorted or disguised this is usually because they are kept out to stop fear anxiety. An example of this would be a slip of the tongue, where you say something because you were unconsciously thinking it.

However, as the article, and time frame the article occurs in, progresses, the indirect observation of the conscious mind becomes more deliberate. It becomes the aim of the research rather than a secondary result. For instance, the work of Weiskrantz and Bisiach indicates an intentional and deliberate studying of consciousness, through scientific processes involving “blindsight,” (31-32) and “inattentive,” vision (33), respectively. The correct responses in the studies yielded by individuals who have been rendered incapable of consciously correctly answering the questions provides solid, scientific evidence of unconscious processes that enabled their behavior, and also indicates a shift in the article toward a more objective take on the scientific method. However, the work indicates not only an evolution and advancement of the scientific discoveries highlighted—that is, the discussion of consciousness—but also an evolution of the scientific process itself away from the antiquated practices of pseudoscience that the piece highlights near its start, and toward the scientific method as it is known

The author did not find any resource that informed her that there is unconsciousness in

Perception without awareness has been an intense and long-term debate in cognitive research. Uncertainty over it’s lack of convincing empirical demonstration brought into question whether a stimulus could be perceived in the absence of conscious perceptual processing (Kouider & Dehaene, 2007). However, there is now reasonable evidence for existence of unconscious perception, shifting the controversy onto the extent and depth of unconscious semantic processing (Ortells, Fringes & Plaza-Ayllon, 2011). Theories regarding the differences between conscious and unconscious processed have been conflicted. On one side, the classical notion theory specifies mental representations and consciousness work together with little room for unconscious levels of representation. Indicating while unconscious processing exists it does not have involvement in semantic

For starters consciousness is a mystical network. It has several different extraordinary characters. One David Chalmers says it has a “unified and a differentiated character”, that he feels defines consciousness and makes it simple. But is it really that simplistic?? I mean consciousness is something everyone is aware of at every waking moment of life until death. Never has it been something

“Reality is merely an illusion.” This quote by Albert Einstein has been widely perpetuated and in many cases dismissed as nonsensical speculation; however, very few realize just how accurate this statement is. Reality is not nearly as tangible as most have come to believe; rather, it is a fabrication that exists solely within any one person’s mind. What is labeled as reality is merely an interpretation of data that already surrounds us and is taken in by sensory receptors. The brain and body take all the sensory information that they are given and integrate it in a way that the conscious mind can interpret the world around us and this assimilation of data is what we know as reality.

Consciousness allows a person to recognize their existence, and subsequently, to form their essence. The

The term “unconscious” was first defined by Freud. He stated that, “the unconscious is the part of the mind that holds ideas, thoughts, and memories that we cannot access and bring into our conscious awareness. Because we