defining conciousness

to continnue with a fragment of a recent discussion, i hearby open this thread in the name of the conciousness debate... ( here, here all in favour say aye... aye... aye... aye.....
... oh yeah.. aye.

anyhow;

i am of the beleif that conciousness is a universal whole and as parts of the universe we are parts of this conciousness.
the wiccans belive in a flow of universal energy which connects all living things as does tao belive in a universal flow, as does zen, infact it is only the more recent religions that personifiy this entity all the older philosophies accept it as a flow of energy or conciousness.
so...
what defines conciousness... is it possible to for the universe to have conciousness? is it possible for the earth and all things on it to share this conciousness? what are the necessary precursers to conciousness?

debate in groups and hand in your results before the end of the lesson

 

As Descartes once said.... "I think, therefore I am".

 

Yes, doubt everything until the one thing that you can be certain of is that you doubt. Cogito ergo sum, and from that you can build knowledge. That is a rational starting point. I don't believe in a universal consciousness. I see no reason to believe in one. I doubt it, and in doubting, I at least know that I am conscious

 

I am only ever partially conscious.

 

so effectively concoiusness is self awareness... so is it entirely impossible that the universe is not self aware? what are the precursers to self awareness? what do you have to be before you can be self aware.

 

errrrr alive?

 

I think therefore I can.

 

and they all encompassing universe is alive.. and so has conciousness.. yes?

 

no, because the whole universe doesn't think. Going back to what Descartes said... *see above*

 

so does the whole human think or just part of it( the brain)... how may parts of the universe think.. and everyday we find out something new about the universe so how can you be sure it doesn't think.

 

Consciousness is a property of mind. There's no reason to suppose that objects or entities which don't have minds could be capable of awareness

 

*confused but interested*

 

You can't be sure it doesn't think, because it's logically impossible to prove a negative So it comes down to probabilities, and there's no reason to make the assumption that it could.

 

and so does a mind have to be a brain.. and does that brain have to adhere to the 3 dimensions of physicality. can a mind exist without a brain.. and if not what is it in the brain that produces the mind.

 

but to assume that it could not is to build a wall to prevent further understanding... hence blocking the path of science. do you want to block the path of science.

 

Haha

You're right, it would be a mistake to assume it could not. It could. Many things are possible. The universe may be conscious. The universe may have been created by the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I can disprove neither, but there is about as much evidence for both

 

Yes, as commonly understood, a mind requires a complex neurological system, a brain. It's not reasonable to assume that anything resembling consciousness as we define the term could exist without one. If you were to make such an assumption you would need at least to propose a likely mechanism by which consciousness could arise if not through complex neurological interactions

 

I see you saw Dawkins on Newsnight tonight!

 

if conciousness is produced by synapses and neurons in the brain... and these are caused by the information sensed from the external environment and then interpreted by the brain, which then stores the information and aplies opinion to it. these opinions are formed subject to the biases the brain already formed based on its experience with past external stimuli.

these external stimuli have been produced by other entities all sharing this same production of conciousness...
therefore, external events produce the conciousness of everything...which change the external to form new stimuli for the brain to interpret.
this suggests that we are at the mercy of a universal conciousness.



i hope i explained this as well as i think i have.. it may be just gibberish.. but try and understand.