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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2018 6:24:42 GMT -5
Consciousness, what is it?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2018 6:24:56 GMT -5
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Post by stardustpilgrim on Nov 5, 2018 13:59:13 GMT -5
Consciousness, what is it? We are born with attention and awareness. We must distinguish between the function of thought (and feelings, sensations and doing), and awareness, attention and consciousness. [We also need to distinguish between thought as abstraction and brain processing, that is cognition]. So awareness is expansive, taking in a ~wide frame~ of *what's out there* (a flood light). Attention is like a spot light, taking in a narrow point of focus. The baby explores its world via attention and awareness. And it makes a record of what it takes in (via brain processing), and this becomes memory as images. Gradually it learns language and has memories as abstractions, or thoughts (stored as memory until needed for communication). So what is consciousness? We can juxtapose consciousness to the functions; thinking, feeling, doing and sensations. And we can have the functions without consciousness (and at some point consciousness without functions). So being conscious exists on a continuum, we can be less conscious or more conscious. That is, we can function through thought, feeling and doing, with very little consciousness. This is called operating on autopilot, through memory, through habit. One expression for this, I can do it with my eyes closed, or, I can do that in my sleep. So consciousness is awareness of WHAT we are thinking, feeling or doing. So a question we can ask, when it occurs to do so or when we make a deliberate reminder, how conscious am I on the continuum? (And we can realize we had not been conscious, that we were on autopilot). |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 13, 2018 13:18:13 GMT -5
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