well we know that it is tied the the chemical structure of the brain. injuries and drugs are capable of effecting it in powerful ways, from causeing someone to loose consciousness to altering how they think about the world(anti depressants and “mind altering drugs” for instance). if you want to suggest that consciousness is something spiritual this fact is one major hurdle to overcome.
I can only quote David Chalmers
“There is not just one problem of consciousness. “Consciousness” is an ambiguous term, referring to many different phenomena. At the start, it is useful to divide the associated problems of consciousness into “hard” and “easy” problems. The easy problems of consciousness are those that seem directly susceptible to the standard methods of cognitive science, whereby a phenomenon is explained in terms of computational or neural mechanisms. The hard problems are those that seem to resist those methods.
The easy problems of consciousness include those of explaining the following phenomena:
the ability to discriminate, categorize, and react to environmental stimuli;
the integration of information by a cognitive system;
the reportability of mental states;
the ability of a system to access its own internal states;
the focus of attention;
the deliberate control of behavior;
the difference between wakefulness and sleep.
The really hard problem of consciousness is the problem of experience. When we think and perceive, there is a whir of information-processing, but there is also a subjective aspect. As Nagel (1974) has put it, there is something it is like to be a conscious organism. This subjective aspect is experience.
No, no one knows what consciousness is, but we have a perception of it.
It is when you brain is active; In a “Awake” state.
If you get knocked out somehow or get heavily drunk, you will enter an unconscious state.
well we know that it is tied the the chemical structure of the brain. injuries and drugs are capable of effecting it in powerful ways, from causeing someone to loose consciousness to altering how they think about the world(anti depressants and “mind altering drugs” for instance). if you want to suggest that consciousness is something spiritual this fact is one major hurdle to overcome.
Yes, what conscousness is, is your mental state of “awareness.”
I can only quote David Chalmers
“There is not just one problem of consciousness. “Consciousness” is an ambiguous term, referring to many different phenomena. At the start, it is useful to divide the associated problems of consciousness into “hard” and “easy” problems. The easy problems of consciousness are those that seem directly susceptible to the standard methods of cognitive science, whereby a phenomenon is explained in terms of computational or neural mechanisms. The hard problems are those that seem to resist those methods.
The easy problems of consciousness include those of explaining the following phenomena:
the ability to discriminate, categorize, and react to environmental stimuli;
the integration of information by a cognitive system;
the reportability of mental states;
the ability of a system to access its own internal states;
the focus of attention;
the deliberate control of behavior;
the difference between wakefulness and sleep.
The really hard problem of consciousness is the problem of experience. When we think and perceive, there is a whir of information-processing, but there is also a subjective aspect. As Nagel (1974) has put it, there is something it is like to be a conscious organism. This subjective aspect is experience.
Why are you asking this in R&S? Consciousness is a psychology problem.
As to knowing what it is. Yes we do.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consciousness
try that
It is when your brain, eyes and body are transmitting chemical data to each other at he same time.
You may like this song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9FWVEmN_co