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Neither of those is a concrete definition. Defining "consciousness" as "being aware" is just punting the question on to "how do you define the word AWARE?". An
by Smaug123 9y ago
Neither of those is a concrete definition. Defining "consciousness" as "being aware" is just punting the question on to "how do you define the word AWARE?".
And some people don't have an inner monologue. It's not specifically mentioned in http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/03/17/what-universal-human-experiences-are-you-missing-without-realizing-it/ http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/03/17/what-universal-human-ex... but it's of that same class of thing; there are certainly hits on Google for people claiming not to have an inner voice, and I didn't even bother reading the article on psychologytoday about it.
- Filligree 9y agoYup, I'm one of them. Let me set the record straight, though. I'm not claiming to not have an inner life; I'm claiming to not have an inner voice, except if I'm reading "out loud" internally or whatnot. (Which is useful when writing, but not necessary.) I just use other modalities. To the best of my knowledge there's only one guy, a philosopher, who's claimed to have no inner life at all--and I don't think I believe him.
- akvadrako 9y ago"Being aware" is a common phrase understood by most native english speakers as a synonym of "conscious". If you are asleep, you are not aware of much. If you get hit by a car as you cross the road it's probably because you weren't aware of it. You can do some actions, like driving, either consciously or unconsciously. I didn't say that all "people" have inner voices (by which I meant inner life). But by that definition, it's a requirement to be conscious.