Exploring And Identifying Consciousness Through Observation And Understanding The Movement Of Naturally Occurring

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 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

Consciousness has historically laid beyond the confines of science. Rene Descartes, a French philosopher, laid down the foundation of the study of consciousness by reflecting on what it meant to be conscious. Descartes was the one who introduced the idea of the mind as separate from the body, otherwise known as Cartesian Dualism. Descartes’ several theories sparked major controversy and discussion about consciousness. During the twentieth century, consciousness was seen as a taboo because usage of the word became overused and there was no precise way to describe it, so the word was ‘banned’. Consciousness is a psychological construct because of its difficulty to be observed and measured, which is why it can easily be seen as a taboo. Consciousness has gradually became easier to define, and because it is now accepted in the world of science, it has begun to address some of the most challenging questions of our time.

Philosophers and psychologists could never quite understand the meaning of consciousness. Thy thought it was time to try something different to get the meaning of consciousness. Henry

     Consciousness is a difficult term to grasp; so much so, that many scientists will not even attempt to define the term, much less search for it’s evidence. Most however, do agree that consciousness must include certain aspects; specifically cognition, self-awareness, memory, and abstract thought.

This sense of amazement although imbedded in children is often neglected by adults in the everyday life. And even though it is ever present not only all around us, but also in the existence of the human consciousness as well – which is the

Place and Armstrong explain the possibility of “consciousness is a process in the brain” by comparing it to “lighting is a motion of electrical charges”, for what we

My own theory of consciousness is a state of awareness of self. It has been said that this awareness stems from arousal. Consciousness, to me, is entirely internal. We experience the external world, but only through our senses. Dehaene and Naccache (2001) explain that neuroscience is beginning to investigate and understand the "neural underpinnings of consciousness." Thus, consciousness is something that we experience via our own bodies. However, there is an implied separation between experience and consciousness. Animals and plants also have mechanisms for interacting with the world, but they do not appear to have the same neural underpinnings that them to interpret the world with the same awareness that humans have. We, however, not only experience the external world, but we are aware of that experience.

Therefore if we associate consciousness with our senses then it could be that consciousness is not the result of an immaterial substance. But it is also hard to determine if we have one unified consciousness, or when the brains are split, 2 different consciousnesses, or even more than 2! There is no way to measure that, and is still a mystery, we can’t thoroughly explain what actually determines the true consciousness of ourselves, if we believe there is more than one consciousness within our brains over ruling the other or letting that specific consciousness win the decision. If we associate consciousness with senses, then we also associate it with the decisions we make, if vanilla scented candles makes us feel calm, then we light them, if a specific song makes us happy, then we play it, if I jump off a high ledge and land wrong, it’ll hurt so perhaps I wouldn’t do that or learn how to land correctly. Or it could be that a person might do the complete opposite of those things, maybe they don’t want to feel calm, happy or might want to break their legs. We don’t know why consciousness helps us to decide what decisions we choose for ourselves or even why it matters in a scientific point of

Hastrup (1995) in his essay “The inarticulate mind” opens with “Questions of consciousness entail endless other questions”, this is certainly the case trying to answer the question, is consciousness internal or does it have an external dimension? That I only found more questions while investigating is not important, for it is that people do treat consciousness as something social and that makes it anthropologically relevant. Does an anthological view have bearing, or should there be a philosophical or just scientific approach only? Philosophy gives us the computational theory of mind and defines consciousness as just information and processing. Research has extended this theory to at least seven primate species (Devaine, et al., 2017)

Consciousness poses the most baffling challenges in scientific realm of the mind. There’s nothing with which we share an intimate relation than conscious experience, but there’s nothing so strenuous or demanding to explain. Perhaps no other aspect of mind is more puzzling than this mystifying experience that we encounter in our every day life. There’s a widespread disparity amongst individuals regarding the existence of this entity. Some might argue that consciousness is not more than a foolish idea, though there are some stances where investigations over its existence hadn’t yield anything to prove it’s very existence in nature, while others have held an opposite view, and contended that its very existence can be explained in empirical

The mind-body problem in philosophy discusses the relationship between consciousness and the brain. Historically, responses have fallen into two categories: Dualism (referring to a discrete distinction between mind and matter) and Monism (referring to the notion that mind and body are aspects of the same of entity). For centuries philosophers have hotly debated solutions to the mind-body problem through philosophical reasoning and rational. However in the 20th century, philosophers have begun to turn to science in an attempt to decipher a solution. For example, the concept of rationality in the mind-body problem has been addressed by psychology as well as making parallels to computer science. Furthermore, recently several Journals have been generated in order to discuss consciousness. However, applying science to the intentionality component of the mind-body problem has not been widely attempted. This may come as a surprise considering intentionality may be one of the most fundamental aspects. The reason for intentionality being so crucial is a result of rationality only existing among intentional states, as well as consciousness may be simply an intentional occurrence. Thus, applying scientific theory rather than philosophical reasoning may result in significant progression in the mind-body problem. Thus far, the most widely agreed upon explanation for intentionality involves the concept that our minds encompass mental representations. That is, we are capable of expressing

Imagine you are walking down the street; it is a beautiful, breezy day. You stop for a moment, you notice a tree. For some reason you find this tree to be very alluring. You can’t help but stare as you attempt to capture this moment. You notice the way the light dances through the branches, the way the breeze catches each leaf, sending them into a blissful dance. The limbs move so freely throughout the crisp air. This expression of pure freedom and bliss etched upon the face of nature. It captivates you. Since the very moment that this tree captured your attention, perception has been at work. Perception has allowed for you to interpret this one particular occurrence and, in turn, experience life. The process of perception helps us to experience the world at large. It is our perceptions that make up our conscious experience and make it possible for us to interact with the people and objects that surround us.

In order to do so, I shall be looking at different sources and reviewing various definitions and interpretations of consciousness and distinguishing the methods approached to the study of the topic in the way it is measured.

As mentioned in the previous essay of this class, when discussing what has changed my consciousness, I am often struck with plagues of severe anxiety. Most of the time, these anxiety bouts are loops of trying to determine ‘what I am’? Especially in the means of consciousness. These are often triggered by life-changing or adrenaline-inducing events. One in particular that I remember very well when I questioned what I thought my consciousness is occurred in Mombasa, Kenya.