By knowing that the consciousness is what allows humans to know the difference of the observer from what is observed , it allows people to realize that they are able to understand many complex things that other living things cannot. The consciousness may come from the brain , yet humans cannot pinpoint where exactly is it. Consciousness may come from the brain, but it cannot be exactly pointed out in the brain and has to be explained through energy . Dan Barnett is the author of the article Consciousness Explained , and this article he proceeds to say that " There is no single spot in the brain where consciousness “happens”; once one part of the brain has made a certain discrimination (of movement, say, or color), that information is an available part of
Then he proceeds to say that if consciousness works without any real evidence that its working then it must work the same as the mind. Both the mind and the consciousness cannot be found in the body so how is it that they are able to work? Well the mind is explained mostly through energy, because when someone has a certain mind set they do certain things. Now the consciousness is what make humans aware of themselves and others without having to put so much thought to it. Peter Crawford is the author of the article Shadows of the Mind and he tries to explain this process of how the consciousness works. He states that he" exanimate both classical and quantum physics, looking for the place where consciousness might reside. He then draws from research into the molecular structures in the brain and finds suggestions of quantum-level activity that may be influencing the processing of information in the brain"(Crawford). Could the quantum-level activity be what makes the brain produce the conscious. These quantum-level activity can change the information of the brain therefore it can lead to the creation of a conscious and a
Chapter 4 discusses the several states of consciousness: the nature of consciousness, sleep and dreams, psychoactive drugs, hypnosis, and meditation. Consciousness is a crucial part of human experience, it represents that private inner mind where we think, feel, plan, wish, pray, omagine, and quietly relive experiences. William James described the mind as a stream of consciousness, a continuous flow of changing sensations, images thoughts, and feelings. Consciousness has two major parts: awareness and arousal. Awareness includes the awareness of the self and thoughts about one's experiences. Arousal is the physiological state of being engaged with the environment. Theory of mind refers to individuals understanding that they and others think,
As there are many different schools of Buddhism, each with different principles, there are also many different views on consciousness. First, we'll turn to the "Consciousness-Only School" also known as Yogacara Buddhism. According to the Consciousness-Only school there are eight parts of the consciousness. The five sense-consciousnesses, those related to the senses. There is the sixth consciousness, called the sense-center consciousness, that which forms our conceptions. The seventh is called the thought-center, the consciousness related to will and reasoning. And the eighth consciousness, called the storehouse consciousness. The storehouse consciousness basically "stores" our past experiences. The consciousness are in a constant state of change, the seed is constantly being influenced by the inward flow of perceptions, and the seed itself influences the perceptions (Chan 371). This train of thought is most similar to the existing model of cognition and memory encoding.
How can the brain be a mind, a conscious person? Recently, some philosophers have argued that human consciousness and cognitive activity, including even our moral cognition and behavior, can best be explained using a connectionist or neural network model of the brain (see Churchland 1995; Dennett 1991 and 1996). (1) Is this right? Can a mass of networked neurons produce moral human agents? I shall argue that it can; a brain can be morally excellent. A connectionist account of how the brain works can explain how a person might be morally excellent in Aristotle's sense of that term.
explanation of where our minds, or consciousness, came from and how we are able to
Reality and consciousness has been a philosophical debate for centuries. Reality is described as the state of things like they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined. It includes everything that is and has been beyond observable or comprehensible proof. Consciousness is difficult to define, it can be the state or quality of awareness, or being aware of externalities beyond yourself. They can be viewed as opposing ideas and can also be considered dependents, one requiring the other: ‘consciousness creates reality’. Philosopher George Berkely argued that the world is a figment of our minds and solipsism’s philosophical theory states that only one’s own mind is sure to exist, “while not a complete figment of our imagination,
In addition all the objects, people and the sky that we perceive, and all our experiences are just the result of electronic impulses travelling from the computer to the nerve endings. (ibid.). However, he start by posing doubts by asking that if our brains were in a vat, could we say or think that we were (Putnam, 1981:7). He furthermore argued that we could not (ibid.). For Putnam, it cannot be true that, if our brains are a vat and we say or think that we were, for Putnam it is self-refuting (ibid.).
Is Consciousness something automatic, rooted in our selves, something inseparable in a being with abilities of
Consciousness is a very common and much used word used to describe the condition of being awake and aware. In other words, being conscious means responding to the environment, in contrast to being asleep or in coma. But in philosophical terms, consciousness is defined as the state in which humans are able to clearly distinguish between themselves and all other
I will commence by defining what makes a mental state conscious. This will be done aiming to distinguish what type of state we are addressing when we speak of a mental phenomenon and how is it, that can have a plausible explanation. By taking this first approach, we are able to build a base for our main argument to be clear enough and so that we can remain committed to.
Going off of Zeman’s three institutions, components of consciousness include being alive. A living biological organism. Zeman specifically states “Consciousness is bound up with our physical being”. For one to have consciousness, they must have bodily neural networks that allow for potentialities (Kak. 17. 1994). My personal definition of consciousness changes depending on context and particular periods in time because consciousness is always changing. As of now, consciousness is defined as a societal, psychological, biological, and ever-changing state of being. The one aspect of consciousness that I can continue to cling to is that consciousness is always fluctuating and shifting. In Leslie Irvine’s course, The Self in Society, she discusses how the self is fleeting. The self you are right now becomes a self of the past because by the time you think of your self, who you are, or your consciousness, that self is gone. This is very similar to the concept of the self as a reflexive process, having a “new” self every social interaction that does not carry from interaction to interaction. (Kent L. Sandstrom, Daniel D. Martin, Gary A. Fine. Symbols, Selves and
Furthermore, it does not give a clear explanation of how mind works; instead, it only argues that the mind is a non-physical thing since the laws of physics cannot break it down into particles to conclude how it works. Mind and body both exist, but they both are physical; in fact, it has been proven that the brain is responsible for the human behaviors. For example, the story of Phineas Gage tells us about the mind-body relationship, in which Gage was known to be a very friendly and smart person before head injury, but when he suffered a head injury that affected his brain, he turned to a mean person, who was completely opposite of the person his friends had known before ( Lawhead 83). This shows that the brain is directly responsible for the mind and the behaviors of a
Have you ever consciously thought about your consciousness throughout any given day? Throughout any given day regardless of the occurrences, actions are affected by differing states of consciousness. As frequently as stages of consciousness may change, one does not stop and consciously allocate parts of their day into different categories. It is important to note the importance of being aware of different conscious phases throughout any given day, because these different phases affect decision-making aspects of our lives, and are crucial in understanding our own actions and reactions. Periods throughout any given day for me are divided into asleep, alert, and daydreaming modes. Throughout my phases of the day I am sleeping, eating, studying
1. Jaynes (1976) believed that consciousness came from the different functions of the hemispheres of the brain.
...ay need to be included in the answer to the mind-body problem in order for a true solution to be obtained. I do not believe that mental states can be explained with the simple firing of neurons. This explanation would leave out the conscious experience. Consciousness involves experience and an awareness of one?s surroundings. It seems as if this must be included in the answer to the mind-problem because if not, then this aspect would be left out. In order to correct Nader?s argument, one would need to clarify his presuppositions. However, he does seem to make plausible points and hopefully this will be enough to deter other philosophers from sticking straight to physicalism. Otherwise, they must first reject the subjective nature of the mind in order to come to a truly valid conclusion.
“Consciousness is defined as everything of which we are aware at any given time - our thoughts, feelings, sensations, and perceptions of the external environment. Physiological researchers have returned to the study of consciousness, in examining physiological rhythms, sleep, and altered states of consciousness (changes in awareness produced by sleep, meditation, hypnosis, and drugs)” (Wood, 2011, 169). There are five levels of consciousness; Conscious (sensing, perceiving, and choosing), Preconscious (memories that we can access), Unconscious ( memories that we can not access), Non-conscious ( bodily functions without sensation), and Subconscious ( “inner child,” self image formed in early childhood).