
#REDIRECT Consciousness
Consciousness is a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perception the relationship between personal identity and one's environment. Philosophers divide consciousness into phenomenal consciousness which is experience itself and access consciousness which is the processing of the things in experience (Block 2004). In common parlance, ''consciousness'' denotes being awake and responsive to one's environment; this contrasts with being sleep or being in a coma. The term 'level of consciousness' denotes how consciousness seems to vary during anesthesia and during various states of mind such as day dreaming, lucid dreaming, imagining etc. Nonconsciousness exists when consciousness is not present. There is speculation, especially amongst religious groups, that consciousness may exist after death or before birth. Consciousness is notoriously difficult to define or locate. Many cultures and religious traditions place the seat of consciousness in a soul separate from the body. Conversely, many scientists and philosophers consider consciousness to be intimately linked to the neural functioning of the brain. An understanding of necessary preconditions for consciousness in the human brain may allow us to address important ethical questions. For instance, to what extent are non-human animals conscious? At what point in fetal development does consciousness begin? Can machines ever achieve conscious states? These issues are of great interest to those concerned with the ethical treatment of other beings, be they animal rights, fetus, or in the future, artificial consciousness. == Consciousness and language == Because humans express their conscious states using language, it is tempting to equate language abilities and consciousness. There are, however, speechless humans (infants, Feral child, aphasia), to whom consciousness is attributed despite language lost or not yet acquired. Moreover, the study of brain states of non-linguistic primates, in particular the macaque, has been used extensively by scientists and philosophers in their quest for the neural correlates of the contents of consciousness. ==Cognitive neuroscience approaches== Modern investigations into and discoveries about consciousness are based on psychological statistics statistical study and case studies of consciousness states and the deficits caused by lesions, stroke, injury, or surgery that disrupt the normal functioning of human senses and cognition. These discoveries suggest that the mind is a complex structure derived from various localized functions that are binding problem together with a unitary awareness. Several studies point to common mechanisms in different clinical conditions that lead to loss of consciousness. Persistent vegetative state (PVS) is a condition in which an individual loses the higher cerebral powers of the brain, but maintains sleep-wake cycles with full or partial autonomic functions. Studies comparing PVS with healthy, awake subjects consistently demonstrate an impaired connectivity between the deeper (brainstem and thalamic) and the upper (cortical) areas of the brain. In addition, it is agreed that the general brain activity in the cortex is lower in the PVS state. Some electroneurobiology interpretations of consciousness characterize this loss of consciousness as a loss of the ability to resolve time (similar to playing an old phonographic record at very slow or very rapid speed), along a continuum that starts with inattention, continues on sleep and arrives to coma and death. Loss of consciousness also occurs in other conditions, such as general (tonic-clonic) epileptic seizures, in general anaesthesia, maybe even in deep (slow wave) sleep. The currently best suhe need for 1) a widespread cortical network, including particularly the frontal, parietal and temporal cortices, and 2) cooperation between the deep layers of the brain, especially the thalamus, and the upper layers; the cortex. Such hypotheses go under the common term "globalist theories" of consciousness, due to the claim for a widespread, global network necessary for consciousness to interact with non-mental reality in the first place. Brain chemistry affects human consciousness. Sleeping drugs (such as Midazolam = Dormicum) can bring the brain from the awake condition (conscious) to the sleep (unconscious). Wake-up drugs such as Anexate reverse this process. Many other drugs (such as heroin, cocaine, LSD, MDMA) have a consciousness-changing effect. There is a neural link between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, known as the corpus callosum. This link is sometimes surgically severed to control severe seizures in epilepsy patients. Tests of these patients have shown that after the link is completely severed, each hemisphere possesses its own sense of self and each has a separate awareness from the other. It is as if two separate minds now share the same skull, but both still represent themselves as a single "I" to the outside world. The bilateral removal of the Centromedian nucleus (part of the Intra-laminar nucleus of the Thalamus) appears to abolish consciousness, causing coma, PVS, severe mutism and other features that mimic brain death. The centromedian nucleus is also one of the principal sites of action of general anaesthetics and anti-psychotic drugs. == Philosophical approaches == Philosophers distinguish between ''phenomenal consciousness'' and ''access'' or ''psychological consciousness''. Some suggest that consciousness resists or even defies definition. There are many philosophical stances on consciousness, sometimes known as 'isms', including: behaviorism, cognitivism, dualism, idealism, functionalism, phenomenalism, physicalism, pseudonomenalism, emergentism, and mysticism. === Phenomenal and access consciousness === Philosophers call mental events themselves ''phenomenal consciousness''. Phenomenal consciousness is simply experience, it is moving, coloured forms, sounds, sensations, emotions and feelings with our bodies and responses at the centre. The ''Hard problem of consciousness'' is how to explain a state of phenomenal consciousness in terms of its neurological basis (Chalmers 1996). Some philosophers, such as Descartes in his famous phrase "cogito, ergo sum", believe that phenomenal consciousness is ''incorrigible'', meaning that it cannot be doubted. ''Access consciousness'' means something like awareness, or ''that a mind is directed at something.'' (That sounds more like a definition of that philosophical term "intentionality" often referred to with the layman's term "aboutness".) So when we perception, we are conscious of what we perceive; when we introspection, we are conscious of our thoughts; when we memory, we are conscious of something that time, or of some piece of information that we learning; and so on. Naive realism and Direct realism believe that access consciousness is all that needs to be known about consciousness because they regard phenomenal consciousness as the world itself. Events that occur in the mind or brain that are not within phenomenal consciousness are known as ''unconscious mind'' events. ===The description and location of consciousness=== Although it is the conventional wisdom that consciousness cannot be defined, philosophers have been describing it for centuries. Rene Descartes wrote ''Meditations on First Philosophy'' in the seventeenth century, and this contains extensive descriptions of what it is to be conscious. Descartes described consciousness as things laid out in space and time that are viewed from a point. Each thing appears as a result of some quality such as colour, smell etc. (philosophers call these qualities 'qualia'). Other philosophers such as Nicholas Malebranche, John Locke, David Hume and Immanuel Kant also agreed with much of this description although some avoid mentioning the viewing point. The extension of things in time was considered in more detail by Kant and James. Kant wrote that "only on the presupposition of time can we represent to ourselves a number of things as existing at one and the same time (simultaneously) or at different times (successively)". William James stressed the extension of experience in time and said that time is "the short duration of which we are immediately and incessantly sensible". These philosophers also go on to describe dreams, thoughts, emotions etc. Philosophers have provided a description of consciousness that is like our own experience. When we look around a room or have a dream, things are laid out in space and time and viewed as if from a point. However, when philosophers and scientists consider the location of the contents of consciousness there are fierce disagreements. Some philosophers and scientists do not hold that every mental event has a direct physical event (weak or no 'Supervenience'). As an example, Descartes proposed that the contents of consciousness are images in the brain and the viewing point is some special, non-physical place without extension (the Res Cogitans). This idea is known as 'Cartesian Dualism'. Another example is found in the work of Thomas Reid who thought the contents of consciousness are the world itself which becomes conscious experience in some way through a chain of cause and effect. The precise physical substrate of conscious experience in the world, such as photons, photochemicals, quantum fields etc. is not specified. This idea of a chain of cause and effect or chain of relations causing conscious experience to supervene on the world is found in post-modernism and some forms of behaviourism. There are few examples of scientists and philosophers who adhere to the idea that mental events are directly physical events in the brain. Those who do propose this usually argue that we only think that the descriptions of consciousness occur (eg: Daniel Dennett) although some proponents of Quantum mind, space-time theories of consciousness and Electromagnetic theories of consciousness suggest a direct correspondence between brain activity and experience. The concept of supervenience is closely related to the idea of emergentism. It is sometimes held that consciousness will emerge from the complexity of brain processing (see for instance the Multiple Drafts Model of consciousness). The general label 'emergence' allows a new physical phenomenon to be implied by physicalism theorists without specifying the exact nature of the phenomenon. This leaves an explanatory gap. == Quantum mechanical approaches == The physicist Roger Penrose, in his book ''Shadows of the Mind'', argued for a quantum brain approach, suggesting that non-local quantum mechanics effects within sub-neural structures give rise to conscious states. He has argued for the need for a fundamentally new physics in order to explain consciousness, which he conceives as a fungible material: one of which any portion can substitute another. ('Shadows' is effectively a second edition of The Emperor's New Mind. Penrose is keen to stress that it replaces that older work). This central feature of the quantum approach is of much importance: quantum mechanical theories of consciousness investigate such an entity, namely an experience having the property of being fungible, and their work has not hitherto faced the problems set by experience as it is found, namely as distinctively exclusive and "unbarterable". This for other researchers makes a main controversial point. Penrose was not the first to suggest a link between consciousness and QM; Michael Lockwood and Henry Stapp got there first, and so did Brian Flanagan. Before them there was Bohr, the father of quantum mechanics (QM), who, as David Bohm tells us, "suggests that thought involves such small amounts of energy that quantum-theoretical limitations play an essential role in determining its character." Also of interest are the ideas of Weyl, Wigner, and Schrodinger. All of them shared in the view of consciousness as a fungible reality; adversaries of this stance call it "antipersonalism" and argue that such a construct has never been factually found. The Uncollapsing theorem is an unproven conjecture that if an observer is in a deep altered state of consciousness they will not collapse the wavefunction of a system when they observe it but rather uncollapse it, meaning they can move the wavefunction into a wider possibility states. This would explain certain experiences of meditators who feel they move into a larger space of possibilities when they go into deep meditation. In sum, no real evidence has been found to support any specific relationship between quantum mechanics and the occurrence of consciousness. ==Spiritual approaches== === Buddhism === In Buddhism, consciousness-only (Sanskrit ''vijñapti-mātratā'', ''vijñapti-mātra'', ''citta-mātra''; Chinese 唯心 pinyin ''wei xin'') is a theory according to which all existence is nothing but consciousness, and therefore there is nothing that lies outside of the mind. This means that conscious-experience is nothing but false discriminations, imaginations; a provisional antidote; thus, the notion of consciousness-only is an indictment of the problems the activities of consciousness engender. === Integral approach to consciousness=== Especially in his book ''Integral Psychology'', Ken Wilber has attempted to develop an Integral (philosophy) approach to consciousness. == Functions of consciousness == We generally agree that our fellow human beings are conscious and that lower life forms such as bacteria are not. Many of us attribute consciousness to higher-order animals such as dolphins and primates; academic research is investigating which rather than whether animals are conscious. This suggests the hypothesis that consciousness has co-evolved with life, which would require it to have some sort of added value. People have therefore looked for specific ''functions'' of consiousness. Bernard Baars (1997) for instance states that “consciousness is a supremely functional adaptation” and suggests a variety of functions in which consciousness plays a role: prioritization of alternatives, problem solving, decision making, brain processes recruiting, action control, error detection, planning, learning, adaptation, context creation, and access to information. Antonio Damasio (1999) regards consciousness as part of an organism’s ''survival kit'', allowing planned rather than instinctual responses. He also points out that awareness of self allows a concern for one’s own survival, which increases the drive to survive. Although how far consciousness is involved in behaviour is an actively debated issue. Many psychologists, such as radical behaviourism , and many philosophers, such as those who support Gilbert Ryle approach, would maintain that behaviour can be explained by non-conscious processes akin to artificial intelligence and might consider consciousness to be epiphenomenalism or only weakly related to function. == Tests of consciousness == As there is still not a clear definition of consciousness, no empirical tests currently exist to test consciousness as a whole. Some have even argued that empirical tests of consciousness are intrinsically impossible. However, some researchers have devised tests to detect what they feel are certain aspects of consciousness. A test similar to this was used in the novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" by Philip K. Dick to see if a person was a robot or an actual human. In the Ridley Scott movie Blade Runner which was inspired by that book, the test is known as the "Voigt-Kampf" test and tests the subject for empathy. === Turing Test === Alan Turing proposed what is now known as the Turing test to determine if a computer could simulate human conversation undetectably. This test is commonly cited in discussion of artificial intelligence. The application to consciousness is highly suggestive, but not clear. One is reminded of Edsger Dijkstra's comment "The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim". === Mirror test === With the mirror test, devised by Gordon Gallup in the 1970s, one is interested in whether or not animals are able to recognize themselves in a mirror. Such self-recognition is said to be an indicator of consciousness. Humans (older than 18 months), Hominid (except for gorilla), and bottlenose dolphin have all been observed to pass this test. == See also == ===Cognitive Neuroscience === * Attention, Binocular rivalry, Blindsight, Change blindness, Cognitive science, Iconic memory, Short term memory, Society of Mind, multistable perception, Neural correlate of consciousness, Neural Darwinism, Unconscious mind, Visual short term memory ===Philosophy=== * Philosophy of mind, Mind,Multiple drafts theory , New Mysterianism, Stream of consciousness, Supervenience, Qualia. ===Physical Theories of Consciousness=== * Quantum mind, Space-time theories of consciousness, Electromagnetic theories of consciousness, Spin-Mediated Consciousness Theory, Many-minds interpretation, Uncollapsing theorem. ===People=== * Bernard Baars, Ned Block, David Chalmers, Francis Crick, Christof Koch, Daniel Dennett, Antonio Damasio, Gerald Edelman, Sigmund Freud, Stuart Hameroff, Thomas Metzinger, Marvin Minsky, Roger Penrose, John Searle, Henry Stapp, Larry Weiskrantz, Benjamin Libet ===Misc=== * Altered state of consciousness, Artificial consciousness, Simulated consciousness, Neurophenomenology == Further reading == (General) * Baars, B. (1997). ''In the Theater of Consciousness''. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. * Blackmore, S. (2004). ''Consciousness: an Introduction''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. * [http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/philo/faculty/block/papers/ecs.pdf Block, N. (2004). ''The Encylopedia of Cognitive Science''.] *Chalmers, David. (1996). ''The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory''. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-511789-1 * Cleermans, A. (Ed.) (2003). ''The Unity of Consciousness''. Oxford: Oxford Univerisity Press * Damasio, A. (1999). ''The Feeling of What Happens''. New York: Harcourt Press. * Dennett, D. (1991). ''Consciousness Explained'', Boston: Little & Company. * Koch, C. (2004). ''The Quest for Consciousness''. Englewood, CO: Roberts & Company. * Libet, Benjamin, Anthony Freeman & Keith Sutherland, ed. (1999). ''The Volitional Brain: Towards a neuroscience of free will''. Exeter, UK: Short Run Press, Ltd. * Metzinger, T. (2003). ''Being No One: the Self-model Theory of Subjectivity''. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. *Metzinger, T. (Ed.) (2000). ''The Neural Correlates of Consciousness''. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (Consciousness and quantum mechanics) * Bourget, D. (2004), ‘Quantum Leaps in Philosophy of Mind’, Journal of Consciousness Studies 11 (12). * Eccles, J.C. (1994), How the Self Controls its Brain, (Springer-Verlag). * Hagan, S., Hameroff, S.R., and Tuszyński, E. (2000), ‘Quantum Computation in Brain Microtubules: Decoherence and biological feasibility’, Physical Review E, 65. * Hodgson, D. (2002), ‘Quantum Physics, Consciousness, and Free Will’, in R. Kane (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Freewill (Oxford University Press). * Lockwood, M. (1989), Mind, Brain and Quantum (Oxford: Oxford University Press). * Mulhauser, G. R. (1995), ‘On the End of the Quantum Mechanical Romance’, Psyche, 2 (5). * Penrose, R., Hameroff, S. R. (1996), ‘Conscious Events as Orchestrated Space-Time Selections’, Journal of Consciousness Studies, 3 (1), pp. 36-53. * Stapp, H.P. (1993), Mind, Matter, and Quantum Mechanics, First Edition (Springer-Verlag). * Tegmark, M. (1999), ‘The importance of Decoherence in Brain Processes’, Physical Review E, 61, pp. 4194-4206. == External links == ===Journals & newsletters=== * [http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/622810/description#description The journal ''Consciousness and Cognition''] * [http://www.imprint.co.uk/jcs.html The ''Journal of Consciousness Studies''] * [http://psyche.cs.monash.edu.au/ The free electronic journal ''Psyche''] * [http://www.sci-con.org the free e-zine ''Science & Consciousness Review''] ===Societies=== * [http://assc.caltech.edu/ Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness] ===Philosophy resources=== * [http://www.u.arizona.edu/~chalmers/online.html David Chalmers' collection of online papers on consciousness] * [http://www.glossary.religiousbook.net/terms/consciousness.html Consciousness by Spiritual Glossary] * Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: ** [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness/ Consciousness] ** [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness-animal/ Animal Consciousness] ** [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness-higher/ Higher Order Theories of Consciousness] ** [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness-intentionality/ Consciousness and Intentionality] ** [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness-representational/ Representational Theory of Consciousness] ** [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness-unity/ Unity of Consciousness] ===Misc Sites=== * [http://klab.caltech.edu/cns120/videos.php Online lecture videos,] from an undergraduate course taught by Christof Koch at Caltech on the neurobiological basis of consciousness in 2004. * [http://www.tamilnation.org/sathyam/unfolding.htm Unfolding Consciousness: From Matter to Life to Mind...] * [http://www.imprint.co.uk/Wilber.htm Ken Wilber's An Integral Theory of Consciousness] * [http://www.level-of-consciousness.org Dr. David Hawkins concept of Level of Consciousness] * [http://brainmeta.com Brainmeta's consciousness essays and forum] Self Phenomenology Philosophy of mind simple:Consciousness
== Theories of consciousness - classification == These can be classified along several axes. The physical theories such as those due to Penrose, Broad, or McFadden consider that conscious experience is in some way directly supervenient on a physical field. McFadden's CEMI theory is explicitly not a QM theory (McFadden moved away from this viewpoint). Matti Pittanken's complicated theory is a mixed QM/geometric theory, Broad's is entirely geometrical with no QM component. The term 'physical theories of consciousness' covers the entire spectrum of these theories whereas 'QM Theories of consciousness' only covers QM. Another axis is dualist vs non-dualist but this leads to consciousness-only and physical theories being placed together and if we classify direct realism as dualist the direct realists will be enraged. == Consciousness and Mind == This is good as far as it goes. There is considerably more information to be found in the teachings of Buck on Consciousness and Dr. Ernest Holmes on the processes of Mind an Universal Law and how to use it for the Highest Good of Humanity as well as for yourself. == restructure document - rewrite == It is looking better now but still needs some attention, especially in phenomenal consciousness and the sequence of items. == Quantum approaches == Popper wouldnn't let you dismiss these as 'crank' unless you have a better theory to put in their place. Hameroff's website has links to papers that show evidence for a corellation between microtubule activity and anaesthesia (he is a medical doctor who knows his stuff). 20/09/04 Removed "The hypothesis that consciousness relies upon quantum mechanics is a view discounted by all but a tiny number of scientists." This is not an academic statement, its import is covered in the following sentence that no real evidence has been found. == Blakemore == Suggest we remove the Blakemoor link. She is a well-known hanger-on in the consciousness research community, and doesn't appear to have anything new to say that isn't already in Dennett 1991. Just because you have media friends who get you on TV doesn't mean you are any good (see Kevin Warwick). == Incorrigibility == Made reference to the technical philosophical term among philsophers of mind. User:Icut4you 21:08, 30 Aug 2004 (UTC) == Empirical description of consciousness == This was added to provide a reference to the work of the most famous of the philosophers and scientists who are associated with this subject. The quotations were included so that the famous philosophers could speak in their own words, this whole area being so contentious that any other form of presentation would be impossible. The quotations are of a length permitted by 'fair use'. I selected the empirical parts of these philosopher's works because these will always be of interest whereas their musings on various theories of mind may appear old fashioned in the context of modern science. A full discussion of each author would need a fifty page article and be mostly irrelevant to modern interests. However, some readers may think that the whole piece sits awkwardly in the context of the lighter level of treatment in the rest of the article. I am very loathe to change anyone else's contributions and equally loathe to put the piece in a new article. This issue is in the hands of the editors but any discussion of consciousness must surely make reference to Descartes, Kant, Hume, Locke etc. == Electroneurobiological theories == I removed the following sentence after the paragraph on deep sleep. I have worked in this area for sometime and never heard of this theory. Does the author have a reference? "This is a typical situation in which some electroneurobiological researchers see a change in time acuity or the ability to distinguish moments, assumed to arise from theory of relativity at work in brain biophysics." 27/09/04 OK, I've tracked down some original source material for this reference. This seems to be a very specific theory that is not universally accepted or publicised. My own feeling is that reference to this theory belongs in the next section next to "Quantum mind" and "space-time theories". Not being expert in this theory I am unsure of the level of supervenience being implied but I think it is direct so I have put in a link in the appropriate place. Could the person who put in a reference to electroneurobiological theories complete a wikipedia section on this to complete the link? 27/09/04 I'm David[undouble the "@"], the guy who put it in; I'm on sabbatical in Buenos Aires. Thank you for your help; I'm to be blamed for not having surfaced before in this Discussion section. Deep sleep is no longer understood as a state lacking in mentation. On this topic there are several research papers, since the sixties, which after 2000 got multiplied. One might start with Nielsen, T. A., ?Cognition in REM and NREM sleep: A review and possible reconciliation of two models of sleep mentation,? and Solms, M. (2000), ?Dreaming and REM Sleep are controlled by different brain mechanisms,? in the special issue (23, # 6, 2000) of Behavioral and Brain Sciences devoted to ?Sleep and Dreaming,? anticipated on line since December 1999. The paradigm shift caused by recognition of deep sleep mentation stirred a recent interest in electroneurobiological theories, chiefly developed outside the Anglo-American academe. This is why they aren't yet widely known, altho at least three major publishers in the States are currently wrestling to be the first in putting a full treatment in the book market. This muddles communications a bit and I resorted to the original propounders, the Argentine-German neurobiological school (or tradition). In the circumstances, I'll try to prepare a Wikipedia article about it, yet not before six or seven weeks. Meanwhile I'd leave the deep sleep mention as it stands, altho it no longer is entirely correct. The mention, "This is a typical situation in which some electroneurobiological researchers see a change in time acuity or the ability to distinguish moments, assumed to arise from theory of relativity at work in brain biophysics" seems me to solve the problem. However, I edited the new sentence added in the next section,because it mixed up electroneurobiology with electromagnetic theories of mind. The latter (eg the views of Susan Pockett of New Zealand or Pavel Ivanov of Moscow, all ultimately stemming from views akin to the Stoic view of aether) assume that mind supervenes upon electromagnetic patterns. The former rather assume such patterns to work upon other physical structures on which supervenience occurs, so that electroneurobiology is (part of) natural science by itself unconcerned with mind. I'll much appreciate any feed back.
27/09/04 I look forward to your article and feel that if this spreads ideas that are locked away in other languages it will be bang on target for Wikipedia. Something that troubles me is that if "electroneurobiology is (part of) natural science by itself unconcerned with mind" and mind is conscious experience then is electroneurobiology a part of the study of consciousness (ie: the nature of mind) or is it related to the non-conscious part of neural processing?
27/09/04 I've been only one month writing on it! :-) Electroneurobiology, in what concerns us for this entry, studies the extramental processes that furnish mind with time acuity, or time resolution. Shrinking or dilating this acuity allows mind to present differently its own differentiations or mental contents. The object-conserving operations (remember Piaget) that define mental contents are allowed to be presented to oneself with more or, either, with less detail -like as you may write maths with tight, full equation-signifying signs (say, an asterisk for e=mc2) or either spelling out the equations themselves in boring detail. As I learnt in this place, this was observed by Aristotle. The attainable level of operative detail, it is said here, is controlled by electroneurobiological means, acts upon other physical means upon which minds react, and thereby enacts the differences in attention. The focus of attention displays mental contents in full operative detail, perceptual background does it in far less operational detail, dreamers "mentate" availing only of a still lesser amount of operatively "plenified" (akin to ''Einfüllung'', a term by Husserl) mental contents and, progressing in disconnection, mentation in deep sleep or vegetative states is too much slow for extramental clocks to tell its states apart - altho the disconnected mind finds itself "mentating" with normal speed. This has been taught here for decades on a 250-year tradition with a series of "firsts", which published a paper on neurobiology and relativity in 1922, which Einstein visited for one month in 1925 (remember, they speak German), and which evolved quite apart, it seems, from everything.
==Reversion to Early September 2004==
The changes I made in September were not in line with the encyclopedic nature of Wikipedia and I do not have any more time to sort this out.
== Andrew Cohen POV ==
The comment ''"Cohen has been working since 1986 toward a single goal: the transformation of human consciousness on a global scale"'' is somewhat PoV. I rewrote it as
''Cohen has been working since 1986 towards what he calls "the transformation of human consciousness on a global scale".''
Perhaps this comment should be removed altogether?
--User:MatthewJ 21:09, 4 Feb 2005 (UTC)
I agree, the whole section on Wilber is cranky, what is it doing here? User:Loxley 12:11, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)
== Aroma of consciousness ==
''Aroma of consciousness''
“I know no more encouraging act of a man than to lift his life by conscious endeavor” (Socrates)
In my view, states of consciousness represent unique configuration of physiological functions such as thought, memory, emotion, body image, visual & auditory perception etc. e.g. dream and meditative states and the ordinary state of reality. Structures of consciousness are broad noetic modes of experience by which we do understand our life’s world which have evidently evolved across human history that include archaic, magic, mythic, mental and emerging integral structures.
Planes of consciousness represent broad perceptual/emotional horizons which in certain religions and traditions are said to define the quality of ones life’s world, both during and between incarnations. They are commonly called as the transitional states. I articulate them separately from noetic states of consciousness because there is a reason to believe that they present a different and more or less independent vector of life’s experience, one that is not determined by noetic structures. Their resilience across traditions however seems to lend an interdependence of ordinary physiological process that is not characteristic of states of consciousness.
When I compare the humans body to its environment, I recognize the cosmos as the large infinite, and the atomic particles as the small infinite. The human brain reaches such a degree of complexity that it may be considered as a third infinite in the universe, a complex infinite. It follows that any force capable of moving such an infinite deserves a place among the forces of the universe. Physicists have recognized Four forces-The Gravitational force, The Electromagnetic, The Electrostatic & The Nuclear force. Forces are defined in four dimensions ( reversible or not in time) and it is postulated that these forces are applicable everywhere. Pleasure and displeasure, the affective axis of consciousness, can move the infinity complex axiomatically, that the affective capability of consciousness operates in a way similar to the way the four forces of physics: i.e. influences the behavior of conscious agents in a way similar to the way the four forces influence masses and particles. however, since a natural phenomenon is dimensionless, I suppose to call the affective capability of consciousness as the fifth influence rather than fifth force.
Does life emerge spontaneously from a predetermined in animate back ground, or is it a basic characteristic of all of our environment? Living entities may respond to the external threatening stimuli in order to survive in a hostile climate . if we set aside the pre-supposition that inanimate and animate structures and agents are fundamentally different, then this criterion applies to all recognizable entities. An entity depends for its continuance not only on awareness of its surroundings, but also on self, referencing as a means of stabilizations. It must not only reflect external consciousness but also a degree of self consciousness. Uniquely external consciousness can engender incongruous or self destructive internal development; self consciousness can engender and leave the entity wide open to incomprehensible attack by external agents. the duel between these two facets constitutes the process we refer to as life. We can describe the natural living world as, and by, a non linearly scaled hierarchy of concepts, each of which maintains its autonomy by relying on its precursor as a tool. Life uses biology, biology uses chemistry and chemistry in turn uses quantum mechanics. I think that at the head of this hierarchy - The universe, background of casually chaotic communication, makes use of consciousness, which uses LIFE as a tool in its auto-propagation.
Irfan
----
"What are the inheritable characterisitics of intelligence? What are the correlations between intelligence and sex? Is intelligence affected by the geomagnetic field?"
It seems to me this part of the caption distracts from the article. These questions seem to have little to do with what is discussed here. Also, why is there a picture of a black hole? I think the picture and caption should be removed. Thoughts? User:Floorsheim 06:54, 6 May 2005 (UTC)
I agree. I removed them. -- User:WOT 20:10, 7 May 2005 (UTC)
== Non-consciousness, absence of consciousness, subconscious ==
Although these terms may need to be defined the definitions placed in the introduction were incorrect. Absence of consciousness/non-consciousness are not types of consciousness. User:Loxley 10:02, 22 May 2005 (UTC)
== A Wikiversity School of Consciousness Studies? ==
Any support for a School of Consciousness Studies over at the Wikiversity project? Or for expanding this thread into an Introduction to Consciousness Studies Textbook over at wikiBooks? I would be willing to devote some time towards writing introductory articles. User:Alistaircochrane 16:54, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)
:I didn't know about Wikiversity until you mentioned it. Unfortunately the article has been listed for deletion. I see that the project itself is a part of Wikibooks accessed from its lefthand page menu. Sounds like an interesting idea. --User:Blainster 19:30, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)
OK, lets do it. I have put a [http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Consciousness_studies Consciousness Studies template (click here)] up at wikibooks User:Loxley 08:45, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
Words begining with Consciousness:
ConsciousNess
Consciousness
Consciousness
Consciousness-only
Consciousness-only_School
Consciousness-only_school
Consciousness-raising
Consciousness_(artificial)
Consciousness_(artificial)
Consciousness_and_Cognition
Consciousness_calibration
Consciousness_causes_collapse
Consciousness_Explained
Consciousness_Explained
Consciousness_only
Consciousness_raising
Consciousness_Revolution
Consciousness_Singularity
Consciousness_studies
ConsciousNess
#REDIRECT Consciousness
Consciousness
Consciousness is a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perception the relationship between personal identity and one's environment. Philosophers divide consciousness into phenomenal consciousness which is experience itself and access consciousness which is the processing of the things in experience (Block 2004). In common parlance, ''consciousness'' denotes being awake and responsive to one's environment; this contrasts with being sleep or being in a coma. The term 'level of consciousness' denotes how consciousness seems to vary during anesthesia and during various states of mind such as day dreaming, lucid dreaming, imagining etc. Nonconsciousness exists when consciousness is not present. There is speculation, especially amongst religious groups, that consciousness may exist after death or before birth. Consciousness is notoriously difficult to define or locate. Many cultures and religious traditions place the seat of consciousness in a soul separate from the body. Conversely, many scientists and philosophers consider consciousness to be intimately linked to the neural functioning of the brain. An understanding of necessary preconditions for consciousness in the human brain may allow us to address important ethical questions. For instance, to what extent are non-human animals conscious? At what point in fetal development does consciousness begin? Can machines ever achieve conscious states? These issues are of great interest to those concerned with the ethical treatment of other beings, be they animal rights, fetus, or in the future, artificial consciousness. == Consciousness and language == Because humans express their conscious states using language, it is tempting to equate language abilities and consciousness. There are, however, speechless humans (infants, Feral child, aphasia), to whom consciousness is attributed despite language lost or not yet acquired. Moreover, the study of brain states of non-linguistic primates, in particular the macaque, has been used extensively by scientists and philosophers in their quest for the neural correlates of the contents of consciousness. ==Cognitive neuroscience approaches== Modern investigations into and discoveries about consciousness are based on psychological statistics statistical study and case studies of consciousness states and the deficits caused by lesions, stroke, injury, or surgery that disrupt the normal functioning of human senses and cognition. These discoveries suggest that the mind is a complex structure derived from various localized functions that are binding problem together with a unitary awareness. Several studies point to common mechanisms in different clinical conditions that lead to loss of consciousness. Persistent vegetative state (PVS) is a condition in which an individual loses the higher cerebral powers of the brain, but maintains sleep-wake cycles with full or partial autonomic functions. Studies comparing PVS with healthy, awake subjects consistently demonstrate an impaired connectivity between the deeper (brainstem and thalamic) and the upper (cortical) areas of the brain. In addition, it is agreed that the general brain activity in the cortex is lower in the PVS state. Some electroneurobiology interpretations of consciousness characterize this loss of consciousness as a loss of the ability to resolve time (similar to playing an old phonographic record at very slow or very rapid speed), along a continuum that starts with inattention, continues on sleep and arrives to coma and death. Loss of consciousness also occurs in other conditions, such as general (tonic-clonic) epileptic seizures, in general anaesthesia, maybe even in deep (slow wave) sleep. The currently best suhe need for 1) a widespread cortical network, including particularly the frontal, parietal and temporal cortices, and 2) cooperation between the deep layers of the brain, especially the thalamus, and the upper layers; the cortex. Such hypotheses go under the common term "globalist theories" of consciousness, due to the claim for a widespread, global network necessary for consciousness to interact with non-mental reality in the first place. Brain chemistry affects human consciousness. Sleeping drugs (such as Midazolam = Dormicum) can bring the brain from the awake condition (conscious) to the sleep (unconscious). Wake-up drugs such as Anexate reverse this process. Many other drugs (such as heroin, cocaine, LSD, MDMA) have a consciousness-changing effect. There is a neural link between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, known as the corpus callosum. This link is sometimes surgically severed to control severe seizures in epilepsy patients. Tests of these patients have shown that after the link is completely severed, each hemisphere possesses its own sense of self and each has a separate awareness from the other. It is as if two separate minds now share the same skull, but both still represent themselves as a single "I" to the outside world. The bilateral removal of the Centromedian nucleus (part of the Intra-laminar nucleus of the Thalamus) appears to abolish consciousness, causing coma, PVS, severe mutism and other features that mimic brain death. The centromedian nucleus is also one of the principal sites of action of general anaesthetics and anti-psychotic drugs. == Philosophical approaches == Philosophers distinguish between ''phenomenal consciousness'' and ''access'' or ''psychological consciousness''. Some suggest that consciousness resists or even defies definition. There are many philosophical stances on consciousness, sometimes known as 'isms', including: behaviorism, cognitivism, dualism, idealism, functionalism, phenomenalism, physicalism, pseudonomenalism, emergentism, and mysticism. === Phenomenal and access consciousness === Philosophers call mental events themselves ''phenomenal consciousness''. Phenomenal consciousness is simply experience, it is moving, coloured forms, sounds, sensations, emotions and feelings with our bodies and responses at the centre. The ''Hard problem of consciousness'' is how to explain a state of phenomenal consciousness in terms of its neurological basis (Chalmers 1996). Some philosophers, such as Descartes in his famous phrase "cogito, ergo sum", believe that phenomenal consciousness is ''incorrigible'', meaning that it cannot be doubted. ''Access consciousness'' means something like awareness, or ''that a mind is directed at something.'' (That sounds more like a definition of that philosophical term "intentionality" often referred to with the layman's term "aboutness".) So when we perception, we are conscious of what we perceive; when we introspection, we are conscious of our thoughts; when we memory, we are conscious of something that time, or of some piece of information that we learning; and so on. Naive realism and Direct realism believe that access consciousness is all that needs to be known about consciousness because they regard phenomenal consciousness as the world itself. Events that occur in the mind or brain that are not within phenomenal consciousness are known as ''unconscious mind'' events. ===The description and location of consciousness=== Although it is the conventional wisdom that consciousness cannot be defined, philosophers have been describing it for centuries. Rene Descartes wrote ''Meditations on First Philosophy'' in the seventeenth century, and this contains extensive descriptions of what it is to be conscious. Descartes described consciousness as things laid out in space and time that are viewed from a point. Each thing appears as a result of some quality such as colour, smell etc. (philosophers call these qualities 'qualia'). Other philosophers such as Nicholas Malebranche, John Locke, David Hume and Immanuel Kant also agreed with much of this description although some avoid mentioning the viewing point. The extension of things in time was considered in more detail by Kant and James. Kant wrote that "only on the presupposition of time can we represent to ourselves a number of things as existing at one and the same time (simultaneously) or at different times (successively)". William James stressed the extension of experience in time and said that time is "the short duration of which we are immediately and incessantly sensible". These philosophers also go on to describe dreams, thoughts, emotions etc. Philosophers have provided a description of consciousness that is like our own experience. When we look around a room or have a dream, things are laid out in space and time and viewed as if from a point. However, when philosophers and scientists consider the location of the contents of consciousness there are fierce disagreements. Some philosophers and scientists do not hold that every mental event has a direct physical event (weak or no 'Supervenience'). As an example, Descartes proposed that the contents of consciousness are images in the brain and the viewing point is some special, non-physical place without extension (the Res Cogitans). This idea is known as 'Cartesian Dualism'. Another example is found in the work of Thomas Reid who thought the contents of consciousness are the world itself which becomes conscious experience in some way through a chain of cause and effect. The precise physical substrate of conscious experience in the world, such as photons, photochemicals, quantum fields etc. is not specified. This idea of a chain of cause and effect or chain of relations causing conscious experience to supervene on the world is found in post-modernism and some forms of behaviourism. There are few examples of scientists and philosophers who adhere to the idea that mental events are directly physical events in the brain. Those who do propose this usually argue that we only think that the descriptions of consciousness occur (eg: Daniel Dennett) although some proponents of Quantum mind, space-time theories of consciousness and Electromagnetic theories of consciousness suggest a direct correspondence between brain activity and experience. The concept of supervenience is closely related to the idea of emergentism. It is sometimes held that consciousness will emerge from the complexity of brain processing (see for instance the Multiple Drafts Model of consciousness). The general label 'emergence' allows a new physical phenomenon to be implied by physicalism theorists without specifying the exact nature of the phenomenon. This leaves an explanatory gap. == Quantum mechanical approaches == The physicist Roger Penrose, in his book ''Shadows of the Mind'', argued for a quantum brain approach, suggesting that non-local quantum mechanics effects within sub-neural structures give rise to conscious states. He has argued for the need for a fundamentally new physics in order to explain consciousness, which he conceives as a fungible material: one of which any portion can substitute another. ('Shadows' is effectively a second edition of The Emperor's New Mind. Penrose is keen to stress that it replaces that older work). This central feature of the quantum approach is of much importance: quantum mechanical theories of consciousness investigate such an entity, namely an experience having the property of being fungible, and their work has not hitherto faced the problems set by experience as it is found, namely as distinctively exclusive and "unbarterable". This for other researchers makes a main controversial point. Penrose was not the first to suggest a link between consciousness and QM; Michael Lockwood and Henry Stapp got there first, and so did Brian Flanagan. Before them there was Bohr, the father of quantum mechanics (QM), who, as David Bohm tells us, "suggests that thought involves such small amounts of energy that quantum-theoretical limitations play an essential role in determining its character." Also of interest are the ideas of Weyl, Wigner, and Schrodinger. All of them shared in the view of consciousness as a fungible reality; adversaries of this stance call it "antipersonalism" and argue that such a construct has never been factually found. The Uncollapsing theorem is an unproven conjecture that if an observer is in a deep altered state of consciousness they will not collapse the wavefunction of a system when they observe it but rather uncollapse it, meaning they can move the wavefunction into a wider possibility states. This would explain certain experiences of meditators who feel they move into a larger space of possibilities when they go into deep meditation. In sum, no real evidence has been found to support any specific relationship between quantum mechanics and the occurrence of consciousness. ==Spiritual approaches== === Buddhism === In Buddhism, consciousness-only (Sanskrit ''vijñapti-mātratā'', ''vijñapti-mātra'', ''citta-mātra''; Chinese 唯心 pinyin ''wei xin'') is a theory according to which all existence is nothing but consciousness, and therefore there is nothing that lies outside of the mind. This means that conscious-experience is nothing but false discriminations, imaginations; a provisional antidote; thus, the notion of consciousness-only is an indictment of the problems the activities of consciousness engender. === Integral approach to consciousness=== Especially in his book ''Integral Psychology'', Ken Wilber has attempted to develop an Integral (philosophy) approach to consciousness. == Functions of consciousness == We generally agree that our fellow human beings are conscious and that lower life forms such as bacteria are not. Many of us attribute consciousness to higher-order animals such as dolphins and primates; academic research is investigating which rather than whether animals are conscious. This suggests the hypothesis that consciousness has co-evolved with life, which would require it to have some sort of added value. People have therefore looked for specific ''functions'' of consiousness. Bernard Baars (1997) for instance states that “consciousness is a supremely functional adaptation” and suggests a variety of functions in which consciousness plays a role: prioritization of alternatives, problem solving, decision making, brain processes recruiting, action control, error detection, planning, learning, adaptation, context creation, and access to information. Antonio Damasio (1999) regards consciousness as part of an organism’s ''survival kit'', allowing planned rather than instinctual responses. He also points out that awareness of self allows a concern for one’s own survival, which increases the drive to survive. Although how far consciousness is involved in behaviour is an actively debated issue. Many psychologists, such as radical behaviourism , and many philosophers, such as those who support Gilbert Ryle approach, would maintain that behaviour can be explained by non-conscious processes akin to artificial intelligence and might consider consciousness to be epiphenomenalism or only weakly related to function. == Tests of consciousness == As there is still not a clear definition of consciousness, no empirical tests currently exist to test consciousness as a whole. Some have even argued that empirical tests of consciousness are intrinsically impossible. However, some researchers have devised tests to detect what they feel are certain aspects of consciousness. A test similar to this was used in the novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" by Philip K. Dick to see if a person was a robot or an actual human. In the Ridley Scott movie Blade Runner which was inspired by that book, the test is known as the "Voigt-Kampf" test and tests the subject for empathy. === Turing Test === Alan Turing proposed what is now known as the Turing test to determine if a computer could simulate human conversation undetectably. This test is commonly cited in discussion of artificial intelligence. The application to consciousness is highly suggestive, but not clear. One is reminded of Edsger Dijkstra's comment "The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim". === Mirror test === With the mirror test, devised by Gordon Gallup in the 1970s, one is interested in whether or not animals are able to recognize themselves in a mirror. Such self-recognition is said to be an indicator of consciousness. Humans (older than 18 months), Hominid (except for gorilla), and bottlenose dolphin have all been observed to pass this test. == See also == ===Cognitive Neuroscience === * Attention, Binocular rivalry, Blindsight, Change blindness, Cognitive science, Iconic memory, Short term memory, Society of Mind, multistable perception, Neural correlate of consciousness, Neural Darwinism, Unconscious mind, Visual short term memory ===Philosophy=== * Philosophy of mind, Mind,Multiple drafts theory , New Mysterianism, Stream of consciousness, Supervenience, Qualia. ===Physical Theories of Consciousness=== * Quantum mind, Space-time theories of consciousness, Electromagnetic theories of consciousness, Spin-Mediated Consciousness Theory, Many-minds interpretation, Uncollapsing theorem. ===People=== * Bernard Baars, Ned Block, David Chalmers, Francis Crick, Christof Koch, Daniel Dennett, Antonio Damasio, Gerald Edelman, Sigmund Freud, Stuart Hameroff, Thomas Metzinger, Marvin Minsky, Roger Penrose, John Searle, Henry Stapp, Larry Weiskrantz, Benjamin Libet ===Misc=== * Altered state of consciousness, Artificial consciousness, Simulated consciousness, Neurophenomenology == Further reading == (General) * Baars, B. (1997). ''In the Theater of Consciousness''. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. * Blackmore, S. (2004). ''Consciousness: an Introduction''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. * [http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/philo/faculty/block/papers/ecs.pdf Block, N. (2004). ''The Encylopedia of Cognitive Science''.] *Chalmers, David. (1996). ''The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory''. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-511789-1 * Cleermans, A. (Ed.) (2003). ''The Unity of Consciousness''. Oxford: Oxford Univerisity Press * Damasio, A. (1999). ''The Feeling of What Happens''. New York: Harcourt Press. * Dennett, D. (1991). ''Consciousness Explained'', Boston: Little & Company. * Koch, C. (2004). ''The Quest for Consciousness''. Englewood, CO: Roberts & Company. * Libet, Benjamin, Anthony Freeman & Keith Sutherland, ed. (1999). ''The Volitional Brain: Towards a neuroscience of free will''. Exeter, UK: Short Run Press, Ltd. * Metzinger, T. (2003). ''Being No One: the Self-model Theory of Subjectivity''. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. *Metzinger, T. (Ed.) (2000). ''The Neural Correlates of Consciousness''. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (Consciousness and quantum mechanics) * Bourget, D. (2004), ‘Quantum Leaps in Philosophy of Mind’, Journal of Consciousness Studies 11 (12). * Eccles, J.C. (1994), How the Self Controls its Brain, (Springer-Verlag). * Hagan, S., Hameroff, S.R., and Tuszyński, E. (2000), ‘Quantum Computation in Brain Microtubules: Decoherence and biological feasibility’, Physical Review E, 65. * Hodgson, D. (2002), ‘Quantum Physics, Consciousness, and Free Will’, in R. Kane (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Freewill (Oxford University Press). * Lockwood, M. (1989), Mind, Brain and Quantum (Oxford: Oxford University Press). * Mulhauser, G. R. (1995), ‘On the End of the Quantum Mechanical Romance’, Psyche, 2 (5). * Penrose, R., Hameroff, S. R. (1996), ‘Conscious Events as Orchestrated Space-Time Selections’, Journal of Consciousness Studies, 3 (1), pp. 36-53. * Stapp, H.P. (1993), Mind, Matter, and Quantum Mechanics, First Edition (Springer-Verlag). * Tegmark, M. (1999), ‘The importance of Decoherence in Brain Processes’, Physical Review E, 61, pp. 4194-4206. == External links == ===Journals & newsletters=== * [http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/622810/description#description The journal ''Consciousness and Cognition''] * [http://www.imprint.co.uk/jcs.html The ''Journal of Consciousness Studies''] * [http://psyche.cs.monash.edu.au/ The free electronic journal ''Psyche''] * [http://www.sci-con.org the free e-zine ''Science & Consciousness Review''] ===Societies=== * [http://assc.caltech.edu/ Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness] ===Philosophy resources=== * [http://www.u.arizona.edu/~chalmers/online.html David Chalmers' collection of online papers on consciousness] * [http://www.glossary.religiousbook.net/terms/consciousness.html Consciousness by Spiritual Glossary] * Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: ** [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness/ Consciousness] ** [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness-animal/ Animal Consciousness] ** [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness-higher/ Higher Order Theories of Consciousness] ** [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness-intentionality/ Consciousness and Intentionality] ** [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness-representational/ Representational Theory of Consciousness] ** [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness-unity/ Unity of Consciousness] ===Misc Sites=== * [http://klab.caltech.edu/cns120/videos.php Online lecture videos,] from an undergraduate course taught by Christof Koch at Caltech on the neurobiological basis of consciousness in 2004. * [http://www.tamilnation.org/sathyam/unfolding.htm Unfolding Consciousness: From Matter to Life to Mind...] * [http://www.imprint.co.uk/Wilber.htm Ken Wilber's An Integral Theory of Consciousness] * [http://www.level-of-consciousness.org Dr. David Hawkins concept of Level of Consciousness] * [http://brainmeta.com Brainmeta's consciousness essays and forum] Self Phenomenology Philosophy of mind simple:Consciousness
Consciousness
== Theories of consciousness - classification == These can be classified along several axes. The physical theories such as those due to Penrose, Broad, or McFadden consider that conscious experience is in some way directly supervenient on a physical field. McFadden's CEMI theory is explicitly not a QM theory (McFadden moved away from this viewpoint). Matti Pittanken's complicated theory is a mixed QM/geometric theory, Broad's is entirely geometrical with no QM component. The term 'physical theories of consciousness' covers the entire spectrum of these theories whereas 'QM Theories of consciousness' only covers QM. Another axis is dualist vs non-dualist but this leads to consciousness-only and physical theories being placed together and if we classify direct realism as dualist the direct realists will be enraged. == Consciousness and Mind == This is good as far as it goes. There is considerably more information to be found in the teachings of Buck on Consciousness and Dr. Ernest Holmes on the processes of Mind an Universal Law and how to use it for the Highest Good of Humanity as well as for yourself. == restructure document - rewrite == It is looking better now but still needs some attention, especially in phenomenal consciousness and the sequence of items. == Quantum approaches == Popper wouldnn't let you dismiss these as 'crank' unless you have a better theory to put in their place. Hameroff's website has links to papers that show evidence for a corellation between microtubule activity and anaesthesia (he is a medical doctor who knows his stuff). 20/09/04 Removed "The hypothesis that consciousness relies upon quantum mechanics is a view discounted by all but a tiny number of scientists." This is not an academic statement, its import is covered in the following sentence that no real evidence has been found. == Blakemore == Suggest we remove the Blakemoor link. She is a well-known hanger-on in the consciousness research community, and doesn't appear to have anything new to say that isn't already in Dennett 1991. Just because you have media friends who get you on TV doesn't mean you are any good (see Kevin Warwick). == Incorrigibility == Made reference to the technical philosophical term among philsophers of mind. User:Icut4you 21:08, 30 Aug 2004 (UTC) == Empirical description of consciousness == This was added to provide a reference to the work of the most famous of the philosophers and scientists who are associated with this subject. The quotations were included so that the famous philosophers could speak in their own words, this whole area being so contentious that any other form of presentation would be impossible. The quotations are of a length permitted by 'fair use'. I selected the empirical parts of these philosopher's works because these will always be of interest whereas their musings on various theories of mind may appear old fashioned in the context of modern science. A full discussion of each author would need a fifty page article and be mostly irrelevant to modern interests. However, some readers may think that the whole piece sits awkwardly in the context of the lighter level of treatment in the rest of the article. I am very loathe to change anyone else's contributions and equally loathe to put the piece in a new article. This issue is in the hands of the editors but any discussion of consciousness must surely make reference to Descartes, Kant, Hume, Locke etc. == Electroneurobiological theories == I removed the following sentence after the paragraph on deep sleep. I have worked in this area for sometime and never heard of this theory. Does the author have a reference? "This is a typical situation in which some electroneurobiological researchers see a change in time acuity or the ability to distinguish moments, assumed to arise from theory of relativity at work in brain biophysics." 27/09/04 OK, I've tracked down some original source material for this reference. This seems to be a very specific theory that is not universally accepted or publicised. My own feeling is that reference to this theory belongs in the next section next to "Quantum mind" and "space-time theories". Not being expert in this theory I am unsure of the level of supervenience being implied but I think it is direct so I have put in a link in the appropriate place. Could the person who put in a reference to electroneurobiological theories complete a wikipedia section on this to complete the link? 27/09/04 I'm David
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
C
CA | CB | CD | CE | CF | CG | CH | CI | CJ | CK | CL | CM | CN | CO | CP | CR | CS | CT | CU | CW | CX | CY | CZ |Words begining with Consciousness:
ConsciousNess
Consciousness
Consciousness
Consciousness-only
Consciousness-only_School
Consciousness-only_school
Consciousness-raising
Consciousness_(artificial)
Consciousness_(artificial)
Consciousness_and_Cognition
Consciousness_calibration
Consciousness_causes_collapse
Consciousness_Explained
Consciousness_Explained
Consciousness_only
Consciousness_raising
Consciousness_Revolution
Consciousness_Singularity
Consciousness_studies
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