The Mystery Of Consciousness And Consciousness Essay

Numerous factors determine when and why you feel tired, full of energy, and hungry. A person's state of consciousness and awareness varies throughout the day and depends on a person's activity, environment, and time clock.

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, from an existentialist standpoint, is defined as awareness of how no life has inherent meaning or importance, and how one’s life is defined by how they are viewed by others. Though many pursue a synthetic purpose in life, in the end, their life is only defined by others' perceptions of their efforts and character.

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.

Consciousness, on the other hand, is the first person self-awareness of one’s mental states. One knows and understands exactly what they are

David Chalmers is a philosopher who talked at a TED Talks conference in Vancouver British Columbia on March 2014 about consciousness and how one explains it. David Chalmers mentions in his talk that each of us in conscious, without consciousness, nothing in our lives would contain any value or meaning (2014). Consciousness is like a movie playing in your head, it possesses all the senses that humans have and also the feelings they have as well (Chalmers, 2014). This movie is your stream of consciousness. Overall, consciousness is one of the most difficult problem to solve in science and philosophy, it will and has taken a lot of time to figure out. With that being said, understanding consciousness is a big key to understanding not only ourselves

Native Americans believed that we are and should be one with Mother Nature. Many believes stem from them being so Intune with the wind, ground, tress/plants and animals. They believe that everything is connected and to be fully connected they needed to have these special ceremonies. These ceremonies included peyote and strong tobaccos to reach true enlightenment and to become one with yourself. Also in these ceremonies you typically are on a journey to find yourself or see things you need to strengthen within yourself. Since I have started mediating and looking further in depth about meditating, I have learned that many feel that you cannot reach true enlightenment in ordinary consciousness. I believe that this “ordinary consciousness” is somewhat

Mixed research methodology has been defined as the class of research approach whereby researcher combines both quantitative and qualitative research methods, techniques, concepts and approaches into a single set of study (Jhoson & Onwuegbuzie, 2004). Historically, the researchers have been using either quantitative or qualitative research approach in order to carry out their research. And, the main reason was due to the presence and wide differences between the supporters and followers of the both philosophies.

Peter Hacker, a 20th century philosopher, argues that the current notions, held by neuroscientists and philosophers, regarding the brain and consciousness are illogical. Subsequently, he discusses, in his opinion, the current misconceptions we have today.

Dr. Anil Seth combines cognitive science, neuroscience, psychiatry, brain imaging techniques and mathematics to explain why consciousness exists at all. He talks about the distinction, which is passed from Descartes, between the “easy problem” and the “hard problem”. The easy problem being to understand how the brain and the body give rise to perception, cognition, behaviour and learning. The hard problem being to understand how and why we have phenomenal experiences or qualia and how all of this should be associated with consciousness at all: why aren’t we just machines, without any inner world/experiences? It is intriguing to think that solving the easy problem would get us nowhere in solving the hard problem, which leaves the brain basis

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

Intelligence and Consciousness are two very controversial topics discussed in neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy. They are both labels for inner-workings of the brain, so they cannot easily be identified. The existence itself of intelligence is not very controversial, because it refers to the brain’s capacity for memory, learning, and ability to reason and problem-solve. However, the measurement of intelligence is very oversimplified and unreliable. Consciousness is significantly more debatable because it is essentially impossible (at least by today’s standards) to develop an objective list of criteria to identify consciousness. Very little is known about it other than the fact that we feel as if we have a single consciousness. The two

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.

Consciousness is largely determined by factors outside of its control – social, historical and economic factors all contribute to an ideology which is beyond the grasp of the person who thinks ideologically. The problem for consciousness is not only its displaced relationship with its surroundings but also its displacement from its own mechanisms.

Consciousness is a pivotal element in human existence. According to Max Velmans and Susan Schneider The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness: "Anything that we are aware of at a given moment forms part of our consciousness”. As important as it is, scientists have trouble in coining the exact definition for consciousness. Even more shockingly, there have been studies that claim human do not make conscious decisions as we have always believed, such as the article Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain published by Nature Publishing Group in 2008, and in the BBC documentary The Secret You by Marcus du Sautoy.