Questions tagged [consciousness]
Consciousness, and related notions like sentience and self-awareness, denote the capacity of certain organisms to express recognition of their own presence in the world.
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On superposition and higher
Could one say that reality itself is in a superposition of resolution and superposition, a so-called "Grand Superposition"?
Symbolically:
S1 = {superposition of unresolved states}
S2 = R1 U S1
...
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New technologies of consciousness - Grigori Grabovoi's [on hold]
how are you?
I'm looking for information regarding Grigori Grabovoi's Russian knowledge.
Topics of interest:
-New technologies of consciousness
-Numbers that heal
-Russian knowledge
-Numerical ...
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If we were to remove language and memory from a brain would it be conscious? [on hold]
It seems to me that the tools we use to observe and analyze the world around us pivot around the complexity of language and functioning of memory. With language , richer concepts like 'function' and '...
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On Kierkegard's definition of the Self: “ a relation that relates itself to itself” ( question based on an SEP's quote)
In The Sickness unto death , Kierkegaard says in a sybilline way that the self is
(1) a relation that relates itself to itself
(2) a synthesis of finite and infinite.
Should I understand that " ...
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1answer
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What is the self? [closed]
Let us accept that science has an answer. The self then would be a representation of one's own body in the context of the environment. However if that is true wouldn't it imply that something is aware ...
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From Sartre's Being and Nothingness, what is the difference between reflective consciousness and self-reflective consciousness?
I am currently writing a philosophy paper for one of my graduate courses and one of the questions posed is "how can consciousness be pre-reflective, reflective, and self-reflective?"
My ...
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Does the first law of thermodynamics guarantee us free will?
I'm considering what may already be a well-known argument. Overall I am looking for a rebuttal.
I'd like to make a quick point before the argument:
For this question I would like to think of free ...
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Can we create a paradox of self-consciousness?
On the theme of Russell's paradox:
Does the set of all sets that do not contain themselves contain itself?
And the Barber's paradox:
Does a barber who shaves all men who do not shave themselves ...
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Consciousness and a simulated brain
There are already several projects that are trying to simulate the human brain (see, for example, Algorithm for large-scale brain simulations)
Let's suppose that it is possible to simulate with an ...
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Is space experienced?
Space doesn't have a taste, a smell, a sound or a "shape". Anything we experience and think seem to require it. It doesn't have any experiential property whatsoever, but we still normally refer to it ...
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The “Brain” of Theseus?
I'm sure everyone is familiar with the Ship of Theseus paradox, basically "If you replace parts of a ship over time until none of the original ship is left, is the end product still the same ship?"
I ...
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The experience of simultaneously holding very different interpretations of reality
Disclaimer: I am describing here something that's been my personal perception/interpretation/mode of being for many many years. I may not (probably don't) know the correct terminology, or whether this ...
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What makes things real?
Suppose that a person can't sense anything. He can't see, hear, feel. Nothing. So for him, does anything even exist?
Does that mean only things we can sense are real or existent?
Also, how would you ...
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Has any philosopher discussed pre-cognitive or pre-linguistic conceptualization?
To get an idea of what I'm talking about one may pay close attention to their own thought process. It may become evident that one can gain awareness of certain conceptual assemblages. If awareness at ...
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On a specific illusion of consciousness
The ability to form models of the world and other people to understand and predict their behavior can be quite beneficial for animals. The ability to react in an appropriate amount of time to what is ...
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Philosophy of anti thinking: What does it feels like to consciously not thinking about X?
Take apples as an example:
When we think of apples, we think of e.g. a round shaped object that is red and is juicy.
But when we are not thinking about apples, we are either not aware we are ...
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Problem with defining existence and being conscious
First of all i know that there is no widely accepted definition of existence, the same with definition of being conscious. However i would like to know whether there are definitions which are not ...
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In how far is experiencing other Consciousness' part of the Hard Problem of Consciousness?
To start with the easy problem of Consciousness - this is really more around the mechanics. It is asking about our scientific understanding of our neurological hardware and the processes thereon. It ...
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Did consciousness always exist?
Speaking of Stuart Hameroff and Sir Roger Penrose:
"Both of them now believe that consciousness, as the interplay of
fine-scale quantum events, may have always existed in the universe."
- ...
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Authors on consciousness and its relation with suffering
Let's say we take a group of volunteers willing to receive a 120V discharge under fMRI scanners. They all may receive the same intensity but how can we know that they all recieve the same amount of ...
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What are some views on the ability to transfer consciousness into a machine?
What are some views on the ability to transfer consciousness into a machine? So when discussing this question, there are two set of questions that arises. What is consciousness, is it something that ...
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According to early Wittgenstein, do we need language or thought for the mystical to show itself?
According to early Wittgenstein, do we need language or thought for the mystical to "show itself"?
He does say the mystical shows itself. 6.522:
There is indeed the inexpressible. This shows ...
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Why does the sense of self change between going to sleep and waking up? [closed]
During the day one can become more and more awake because of activities that connect to the higher sense of self, especially hen one is a practitioner of self-realization: meditation, all types of ...
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How does Chalmers' “hard problem” differ from the “mind-body problem”?
They both seem be be asking how neurological processes can give rise to consciousness. Is there a real difference between the two questions, or is one just a reformulation of the other?
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Is the fact that there are qualia something internal or external?
I'm struggling to digest the SEP article on qualia.
Is anyone saying that there being qualia is something about the world which exists independent of conscious awareness (knowledge and perception)?
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At what stage of human development does a person attain secondary consciousness?
In regards to Gerald Edelman's definition on consciousness, at what stage of human development would a person attain secondary consciousness apart from their existing primary consciousness? Could this ...
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Can anyone recommend a good book on The Self?
I don't have any formal education on philosophy but I read some books including Think by Simon Blackburn that got me interested in this subject.
Thanks.
Edit:
Specifically, I was intrigued by Kant's ...
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Self contradictory things that can't really exist: can they be fully conceived of?
It seems like we can conceive of self contradictory things that can exist. e.g. the proposition expressed by "this sentence is false" is self contradictory but I don't seem to have any trouble ...
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A possible way to test whether integrated information theory causes collapse?
One criticism, of the hypothesis that consciousness causes collapse, is that 'consciousness' has not been well defined. Perhaps, in order to test whether consciousness causes collapse, it is best to ...
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What did Bohm exactly mean when he said that mind and matter were the same?
In 1990, the physicist David Bohm published a paper named "A new theory of the relationship of mind and matter" promoting a "panpsychist" theory of consciousness based on Bohm's interpretation of ...
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What is the purpose of the existence of the universe? [closed]
Why did the universe come into existence?
Going through the timeline of the universe (Big Bang, separation of forces, symmetry breaking, particle formation...), everything that happened lead ...
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Are there philosophers who argue for a close connection between consciousness and existence?
(I'm not entirely satisfied with this question because I can't quite express it clearly, but a personal experience has moved me to ask it. I know it may be too vague or general.)
The consciousness my ...
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Is it possible to dissolve the hard problem of consciousness?
In the positivist tradition, it is common to dissolve certain ideas as being meaningless and not worth further consideration. Roughly, the statements corresponding to those elements of our mental ...
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Why do some non-religious people reject artificial consciousness?
I use "artificial consciousness" as a broad term to describe the possibility that a computer may have the same experience of reality and of itself that we have.
I guess that a religious view, more ...
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Is consciousness just human arrogance in a inability to accept we are controlled by our instincts [closed]
(disclaimer I am nee to this site. I am also dyslexic spell and grammar are not my strong suit.)
I am struggling with the concept of consciousness when does it begin, when does it end. If we have ...
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What is the difference between “conscious of nothing” and “not conscious”?
Consider the following line of thinking:
If consciousness refers to that which experiences, then the idea of being conscious seems to always entail being conscious of something.
For example, it is ...
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Non locality of consciousness
Are there any major philosophies that postulates the non locality of consciousness? I have tried searching for them but could not find anything...thank you very much.
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Why did Daniel Dennett not explain consciousness?
Dennett frequently talks about consciousness as if it has already been solved and that we're just inventing new problems because of some innate fear of naturalism.
In his (now rather old) book ...
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What justified consciousness is an experience and not an thing? [closed]
No philosophers has justified that consciousnesses can be measured. Many philosophers have tried to describe the mind, but are there any specific scholars who describe justified methods to describe ...
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What are the main oppositions to the extended mind thesis? and who presents them?
Andy Clark and David Chalmers are huge in promoting the extended mind thesis but who/what is their main opposition?
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Imagination versus reality [closed]
How can I know of something that happened billions of years ago if I cannot even recall what happened just a day before I was born? Just wondering.
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The illogical nature of want/motivation and its effects on free will
Are all the decisions and desires of humans made in order to stimulate pleasure centers and avoid pain?
If so, could someone/thing which is unable to feel pleasure and pain, and only had the power of ...
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Is consciousness considered a resolved/able problem?
Is the existence of qualia generally considered an unresolved problem by philosophers? Is there a consensus on its nature or whether it can be studied at all?
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Where to start to be savvy about the current literature on consciousness?
I imagine that there are probably only a few major schools of thought, though this may be a misjudgment on my part.
I am very familiar with Daniel Dennett's work, Chalmers, Hoffman's (though I'm not ...
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Can mind-body dualism be modelled by computer programs and their corresponding logic gates at the physical level?
If we a consider complex computer program (such as an operating system) running on an unknown architecture, then somebody observing the computer program at the logic gate level may be able to gain a ...
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Inductive Logic on Existence
Because we, only by inductive reasoning, are sure about next moment 'happening' (or more precisely, not worried about it not happening), does this mean that there is no logical guarantee that next ...
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Which major philosophers (if any) prior to the 1900s believed that consciousness was an emergent property of the brain?
I am going to be doing an Independent Study with one of my professors, and I am obligated (due to the professor's expertise) to choose a philosopher prior to the 1900s.
Were there any philosophers ...
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Can an animal have qualia without self awareness?
Can an animal have qualia without self awareness? I understand that many animals are said to have qualia but not self awareness (perhaps not the great apes).
In particular, I'm having a hard time ...
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Where's Sophia along the “spectrum of consciousness”?
This is really more of a follow-up to all the recent (and not-so-recent) somewhat goofy (and maybe some not-so-goofy) ai-and-consciousness-type questions.
In that vein, I serendipitously stumbled ...
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If we had a hive mind, could we discover it?
Question prompted by @jobermark answer to my question: Are there many minds or is there only one?
The idea that 'greater-that-the-sum-of-its-parts' minds (functional decision capable entities) exist ...
