Consciousness, if we take dictionary meaning, is (http://www.dictionary.com):
1. the state of being conscious; awareness of one's own existence, sensations, thoughts, surroundings, etc.
2. the thoughts and feelings, collectively, of an individual or of an aggregate of people: the moral consciousness of a nation.
3. full activity of the mind and senses, as in waking life: to regain consciousness after fainting.
4. awareness of something for what it is; internal knowledge: consciousness of wrongdoing.
5. concern, interest, or acute awareness: class consciousness.
6. the mental activity of which a person is aware as contrasted with unconscious mental processes.
7. Philosophy. the mind or the mental faculties as characterized by thought, feelings, and volition.
Out of these seven meanings, when we talk about consciousness, meaning number 1 comes closest to what we mean: "awareness of one's own existence, sensations, thoughts, surroundings, etc." But there is another undefined term here also: 'awareness'. Awareness itself is consciousness, so defining consciousness in terms of awareness leads us into circularity and into an infinite loop.
So, it seems it is very hard to define consciousness. May be we can define consciousness using some examples. What are the consciousness beings? Once we have found all the consciousness beings, then we can extract the things that are common to all of them. Collective of those things must then define consciousness.
posted by dipeshb @ 12:21 AM
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