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Consciousness

The presence of subjective experience—there being something it is like to see, feel, think or perceive.

thoughtbridgeInterpretation
IN PLAIN LANGUAGE

Consciousness includes questions about phenomenal character, access, self-awareness and how experience relates to physical processes. Theories disagree about which features are fundamental and how they can be explained.

What “Interpretation” means

This is a philosophical distinction, theory or contested way of organizing a question—not an empirical diagnosis with one universally accepted answer.

Marker-board illustration created specifically to explain Consciousness: The presence of subjective experience—there being something it is like to see, feel, think or perceive.VISUAL EXPLANATION · MARKER BOARD
The presence of subjective experience—there being something it is like to see, feel, think or perceive.
EXAMPLE

A wavelength description can predict responses without by itself stating what seeing red feels like to an observer.

COMMON CONFUSION

Consciousness is not identical to attention, intelligence, wakefulness or the ability to report, though these can interact.

ASK YOURSELF

Is the claim about experience itself, access to information or observable behavior?

RELATED CONCEPTS
color × thought × bridgePerception

Processes through which sensory information becomes an experienced and usable representation of the world.

→thought × bridgeAttention

Selective prioritization of some information for processing or action.

→thought × bridgePersonal identity

The philosophical problem of what makes a person the same person across time and change.

→thought × bridgeOntology

The part of metaphysics concerned with what exists and which basic kinds of things there are.

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SOURCES & TRUST

References

Last reviewed

  1. 01
    Consciousness and Intentionality

    Charles Siewert · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

    Introductory distinctions concerning conscious experience and what mental states are about.
    Reference source
What the source labels mean
Primary source
Original work, experiment, standard or historical text.
Academic source
Scholarly research or review published for an academic audience.
Reference source
An expert standard, encyclopedia or institutional explanation that summarizes a field.
General reference
A practical specialist resource useful for application, but not treated as decisive research by itself.