Conscious Awareness and Brain Processes Essay Example for Free

Conscious Awargonness and Brain Processes EssayA number of scholarly studies on homosexual understanding identify a close relationship between gentleman certainness and the soul processes of a human being. This study is an examination of the literature existing on these two aras with an aim of establishing whether at that place exists a relationship. To achieve this, the study depart mensurate advisedness and its functions in a human being, evaluate brain processes and their functions and from the two analyses, make efforts at establishing either a similarity or a an nonation exist between them. An evaluation of certainnessQuestions about soul have been with humans for a farseeing time. check to Pearson (1999), traces of the questioning on the nature of human consciousness were on that point as early as during the Neolithic period, when burial practices expressed some spiritual belief which had some connotations on some reflections or thought on the nature and existence of human consciousness. The earliest kneads of cultures and intimation into human consciousness are and then only available through historical connotations on the then existing peoples reflection on some aspects of human consciousness.There are those scholars who argue that consciousness, as it is known like a shot is a phenomena that arose much later in the development of humans, as late as after the Homeric era as postulated by Jaynes (1974). In this view of the development of consciousness knowledge, earlier humans acted without submitfully correlating their actions and thoughts. As such, they were unconscious of their actions and acted primarily on a response to physical threats as opposed to cognizance of need.Earlier scholars who attempted to limit consciousness included Rene Descartes in the 17th century and John Locke, in the period of late 17th century (Stanford Encyclopedia, 2006). Their efforts to define consciousness have formed a ass upon which modern human consciousness is constructed from. In Descartes, Principles of Philosophy, written in 1640, he specify human consciousness as self- mindfulness. Locke, in 1988 correlated consciousness to both thought and personal identity (Stanford Encyclopedia, 2006). new-made attempts to define consciousness have been attempted by scholars (Gennaro, 1995 and Carruthers, 2000) who postulate that the word consciousness is a roomy umbrella term covering a broad range of metal phenomena. In its wide range, consciousness abide parent to a land of an organism in its wholeness, also referred to as zoology consciousness or to a certain mental process or state also referred to as state consciousness. Since consciousness is a broad term, this section will highlight the meaning of consciousness in diametric contexts.A person, or a cognitive frame, whitethorn flush toilet be said to be conscious in a number of ways the first sense experience is what Armstrong (1981) referred to as sentience. A sentient creature is one that is able to sense its environment and resolve to it. In this sense, the ability to sense and respond to an environmental stimulus is equivalent to being conscious. The challenge in this definition lies in making a attribute between the reactivity portrayed by living and animate creatures such as animals and humans and the reactivity inherent in inanimate objects such as riseers and trees.This is because a flower responds to physical environmental as evident in withering during the dry season. The other sense of defining consciousness is wakefulness (Cole, 2002). In this sense, an organism is considered conscious not only by possessing inherent ability to respond to the environment entirely by being in a state or a disposition to actually respond to it. Consciousness in this sense refers to being traffic patternly alert or awake. In this definition, an organism would be considered unconscious if it were in a deep state of comma or sleep.In this definition too, there also lies some blurred explanation since by defining consciousness as so, one may need to define it further in terms of levels of consciousness. For instance, it is possible for a creature to be half-asleep, implying that it requires a slight arousal for it to be conscious, as in the definition. Another form of consciousness, place by Carruthers (2000) is self-consciousness. This is a high level order of consciousness in which the creature is not only aware alone also having the correct understanding of the state of its awareness.Among humans, self-consciousness may denote ones ability to differentiate himself from others, in aspects such as language, hierarchy, status etc. One who is unable to make such a distinction would invariably be referred to as self-unconscious. In philosophy, self consciousness is equivalent to self-knowledge, which is used to commonly refer ones knowledge of particular mental states including beliefs, sensations and desires (Stanfor d, 2003). A challenge that lies in this definition is that it disregards conscious forms of life, which may still be undergoing growth and development.For instance, a young child may be incognizant of his status or privileges and as such, when consciousness is defined in this manner, it may assume that such is not conscious. Features of consciousness As mentioned earlier, consciousness is an umbrella term enveloping a broad range of issues. To neck consciousness, it becomes imperative to assess the stimulates that combine to bring out the conscious phenomena. By analyzing these features and later analyzing the features of the brain processes, it will be possible to assess the existence of a relation between the two.The characters of consciousness as identified in literature include A qualitative character- Siewert (1998) had suggested that there exist some experienced desires or thoughts in all forms of consciousness. These are the ones that form the qualitative character of consc iousness but they do not necessarily refer to sensory states. In essence, consciousness embodies some kind of feelings, though it is itself higher than normal physical feeling. When an individual is conscious of something, there is a feel attached to it, which happens beyond the physical human feelings.Phenomenal structure- phenomena as applied in both psychology and philosophy denotes how things in the mankind or the world in general appear to an individual. For consciousness to be complete, this feature ought to be present, that is, there should be an effort deep within oneself that attempts to interpret a certain event or knowledge of the world around an individual. The phenomenal structure of consciousness, as portrayed in theory shows that consciousness is made up not only of sensory ideas but also by complex representations of space, time, body, self and the world (Siewert, 1998). realistic theories of consciousness as published in the Stanford philosophy encyclopedia shows t hat representation of the world as it is has evolved belatedly to become an important theme in the study of consciousness (Stanford Encyclopedia, 2006). Subjectivity- Consciousness is disciplineive in the sense that what is conscious can only be experienced by that creature in the prevailing condition. Creatures with similar capabilities are the only ones that can understand the what-it is like, a common phrase used to define consciousness (Nagel, 1974).In this sense, consciousness is showcaseive, that is, it is understood from the creatures point of view as opposed to being objective where facts would be understandable based on available evidence. Self perspective- According to Searle (1992), conscious experiences exist not as isolated events but as states or modes of a conscious subject to self. For instance, the consciousness of pain is a happening experienced by a conscious subject. The appearance of the cant over as blue is a phenomena that appears as so to a subject.This i mplies that for consciousness to exist, the self subject which can be identified by, I think needs to be there. The self perspective is a critical feature in consciousness since for any event to be reflected to the level of awareness there is need for the intellectual participation of the self through past experience. The requirement for this intellectual part in the subject is an important aspect of this study since intelligence forms one of the brain processes and therefore serves to suggest that there is a close link between consciousness and brain processes. Unity- a conscious system involves some form of unity.Cleeremans (2003) postulate that consciousness has a unity characteristic this unity is that which arises from the subjects ability to link up varied informations and representations and make a coherent judgment. It is this unity in consciousness that can enable an individual to make a relation between past and present interpretations and therefore range consciousness in a focused direction. Other features that are associated with consciousness include wise to(p)ity and transparency, a feature that recognizes the arousal of consciousness about an event due to an individuals intent to do so (Cole, 2002).For instance, ones consciousness about the 9/11 attack comes to an individual through an intentional thought. Once the intention matures, the inner self becomes conscious of the event and the individual is said to be aware. There is also a dynamic flow of information in the conscious state. This dynamic flow is also referred to as a stream of consciousness in which the subject conscious state is expeditious and visualizes events in a dynamic manner, just as in real live (Stanford Encyclopedia, 2003).Through these features, consciousness in a subject performs some functions/ processes, most of which may borrow from both sensory and cognitive aspects. Consciousness plays the first role of flexible control of the physical actions of a subject (Ander son, 1983). When consciousness is defined as self-awareness, it implies that an individual measures and weighs options concerning an issue and as such, all actions are controlled in a state of awareness. In addition, consciousness enhances capacity for social coordination.Humphreys (1982) argues that a subject that is conscious is not only aware of itself and therefore its immediate needs but is also able to extend the awareness to other similar creatures. In a human context, being conscious therefore enables an individual to be conscious of others surrounding him which results to responsiveness to the events occurring in the social arena. Participation and responsiveness to the social environment leads to an integration of the like-subjects so that the social system develops values, beliefs, structures, intentions and perceptions.In addition to social coordination, consciousness presents a subject with an integrated representation of reality. By feature experiential organization a nd dynamism inherent in consciousness, it presents the world in an easy to understand frame. According to Campbell (1994), the features of consciousness help to constitute a meaningful structure of the world. Additionally, consciousness plays the following functions, all of which are additions, either to physical or cognitive processes it enhances informational access, enhances freedom of will and intrinsic motivation (Wegner, 2002).Going by these explanations, it is evident that the realm of consciousness is made up of both sensory functions and intellectual processes, implying that a strong part of consciousness is dependent on brain processes. In the section below, a brief delimitate will be made of what constitutes brain processes and make efforts to establish a correlation between them and the features and functions of consciousness discussed above.