Consciousness
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 things and events. This condition of self-awareness is exhibited through thoughts, emotions, sensations, dreams etc.
Consciousness is a subject of extensive research in philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, cognitive studies and also artificial intelligence.
Metaphysically speaking, consciousness is where self-awareness is stored
In metaphysical aspects consciousness can
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But is this means that the site is conscious, it has feelings, it has a sense of life, and thus it works beyond the syntax manipulation. No it’s just a computer program in which all the features are already programmed and has nothing to do with semantics. But I know that I feel things, I have feelings, intensions, but the main problem is how do I know that I have such characteristics that I have a sense of myself. How do I know that everyone I meet is having the same level of feelings and perceptions? Or how can I differentiate myself from a cleverbot like thing. We are not having a clear cut answers of all the questions till now in a scientific way, but what we have confirm is, psychology of disorder of consciousness. One of the examples of this is Anosognosia, it is type of disorder in which person loss ability to move his any of the body part, like left hand. When such persons are asked to move their hands they don’t say that they can’t, but they say that they are not in mood to do it, or they are not feeling good for it. Another such disease is Anton Bibisky syndrome, in which a person totally loss his eye connection with his brain and hence cant correctly answer the question related to eyesight but when they are asked questions like how many fingers are their they give wrong answers and excuse that they are not wearing specs. There is a sudden disconnect between are they are experiencing and what their consciousness is telling them. They don’t know that they can’t see, because part of the brain that has visual imprint can’t even send details to the brain that they can’t see anything. Imagine that, a surgeon is taking one by one, all cells out of my body and replacing them with the body of some other person, then do I exactly remains the person I was or I become the person whose cells are replaced by mine. Answering such questions is not
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,
There is almost no doubt that there is a relationship between psychology and philosophy. Indeed, many people actually considering that the philosophies related to and concerned with the mind and thought are the precursor to modern psychology. Of course, most of these philosophies were decidedly western, or popular in the west. However, the problem with our western views of consciousness in philosophy and psychology is that often times the way we view the conscious process leads to a so-called "infinite regression." That is to say, if we see consciousness as a set of rules guiding our experiences in life, there must also be another set of rules that defines how we know when to use those rules, and so on and so forth. (Kurak 2001, 18-19). In this paper, I will attempt to show how we can turn to Buddhist principles to help us gain a better understanding of human consciousness.
I am currently an English 160 student who is hoping to move on to the next course, which is English 161. I understand the requirements for English 161. It require students to explore a topic in some depth and conduct independent research related to that topic. Conducting research allows students to learn what it is like to participate in academic culture, posing questions about important issues and developing an argument in response to what others have said. It expected students to learn the most valuable skill in college, which is critical thinking. Students have to be able to read challenging readings. Although I still have problems with English, I think I’m qualified to move on.
The notion of Consciousness took various definitions through time and even today it still doesn’t have a general accepted definition. A more universal one would be that Consciousness is a state of awareness of one’s surroundings, of the external objects around, or being aware of oneself. From a more psychological perspective, Consciousness represents a state characterized by perceptions, sensations, emotions, thoughts, where the individual is aware of what he sees, feels, thinks and observes himself, those around him and the environment.
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
Rosenthal D 2002, 'Explaining Consciousness', in Philosophy of mind classical and contemporary readings,Chalmers D J (eds), Oxford University press, New York
According to cognitive scientist Steven Pinker, author of “The Brain: The Mystery of Consciousness,” he responds to consciousness being very difficult to define and explain how or why any physical state is conscious rather than being unconscious. Another primary issue of consciousness is the issue of having experience. When one thinks and perceives, there is a whir of information-processing, but there is a subjective aspect. A majority of people assume that all mental states are conscious, but none of us know that for sure, and so the problem of describing or explicating consciousness collapses into the problem of explaining mentality. Even though perception can give someone access to knowledge, obtaining your personal perspective cannot only seek knowledge as well, but it can show the spiritual or personal aspect towards
Renner, T., Feldman, R., Majors, M., Morrissey, J., & Mae, L. (2011). States of Consciousness. Psychsmart (pp. 99-107). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Consciousness is a concept that is socially constructed to define a real, yet abstract phenomenon. The point of defining consciousness, in Combs words, is to take an metaphysical idea, something that can not be understood directly in itself, and turn it into an object for humans to understand from a concrete perspective. For the purpose of this paper, the type of consciousness that will mostly be discussed can be described as having consciousness, an adverb that is understood as an experience, not solely the state of being alive (Walden. Lecture. 8/24/16). To define consciousness in words does not do it justice, as it is comprised of the intangible and feelings. Yet, consciousness directly effects the physical world. According to *** , the meaning of consciousness arises in
[4] Guven Guzeldere (1995) 'Consciousness: What it is & how to study it' Journal of Consciousness Studies vol.2, no.1; pp. 30-51
"Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness." Encyclopedia of Consciousness. Oxford: Elsevier Science & Technology, 2009. Credo Reference. Web. 26 April 2011.
The traditional notion that seeks to compare human minds, with all its intricacies and biochemical functions, to that of artificially programmed digital computers, is self-defeating and it should be discredited in dialogs regarding the theory of artificial intelligence. This traditional notion is akin to comparing, in crude terms, cars and aeroplanes or ice cream and cream cheese. Human mental states are caused by various behaviours of elements in the brain, and these behaviours in are adjudged by the biochemical composition of our brains, which are responsible for our thoughts and functions. When we discuss mental states of systems it is important to distinguish between human brains and that of any natural or artificial organisms which is said to have central processing systems (i.e. brains of chimpanzees, microchips etc.). Although various similarities may exist between those systems in terms of functions and behaviourism, the intrinsic intentionality within those systems differ extensively. Although it may not be possible to prove that whether or not mental states exist at all in systems other than our own, in this paper I will strive to present arguments that a machine that computes and responds to inputs does indeed have a state of mind, but one that does not necessarily result in a form of mentality. This paper will discuss how the states and intentionality of digital computers are different from the states of human brains and yet they are indeed states of a mind resulting from various functions in their central processing systems.
The Turing test was a test introduced by Alan Turing (1912-1954) and it involves having a human in one room and an artificial intelligence, otherwise known as a computer, in another and as well as an observer. Turing himself suggested that as long as the observer is unaware whether it’s a human or a computer in either room the computer should be regarded as having human-level intelligence. (Nunez, 2016). But does the “human-level” intelligence mean it should be considered to be conscious? Is it more important to be clever or to be aware of being clever? Is it moral to create a conscious being that just serves our purposes? Aside from the moral implications there are technical implications and parameters
“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).