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Is there any other definition of consciousness than one of a subjective experience that observes and reacts to its environment?
by colordrops 3y ago
Is there any other definition of consciousness than one of a subjective experience that observes and reacts to its environment?
- chongli 3y agoWhat is a subjective experience? To me, this seems like an infinite regress problem.
- MacsHeadroom 3y agoSubjective experience is the awareness of an internal representation.
- chongli 3y agoWhat is awareness then? Do you see my point? Either you end up with a circle of references or an infinite regress of definitions to describe the ineffable. It’s the problem of qualia [1]. They can’t really be defined, only pointed at. My experience of seeing the colour red is non-universalizable. Thus the word red can only point at it, it can’t describe or define it. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualia
- strogonoff 3y agoI would say there is no working definition of consciousness at all—and potentially there can’t be a complete and provably correct one, if we assume Gödel’s incompleteness theorem is true. The reason is that our arguments about consciousness originate from consciousness itself, we are building a model of the system while being inside of it. The only definitive statement that can be made, I guess, is that consciousness exists. As far as consciousness that doesn’t react, there are materialist/behaviourist/illusionist views that hold that only observed behaviour matters and anything else may well not exist, but I personally am not convinced by them.