Aspects Of Consciousness

My consciousness is omnipresent in all of my experiences, permeating my very existence without cessation.  Inward reflection will inform me of various aspects of my own mind.  In a more organized sense, a discipline called phenomenology governs the scientific or philosophical study of consciousness.  Although it can be difficult to define consciousness itself, it remains something that I constantly experience on a relentless basis and thus knowledge about it is of both great interest and advantage to me.  It is important in phenomenology to distinguish between the individual components of consciousness and subjective experiences in order to maximize specificity, which in turn will maximize knowledge and comprehension of the subject.  Doing so allows for superior understanding of the nature of consciousness collectively and in all its minute parts.  Here, I will focus on two particular aspects of consciousness: sentience and self-awareness.


Sentience--the ability to perceive, experience, and be aware of one's surroundings

Self-awareness--the recognition that one can perceive; awareness that one is aware


By these definitions, a creature could be sentient without possessing actual self-awareness: it could perceive external sensations without necessarily being aware of its inner consciousness that is doing the perceiving.  But I, to the contrary, know with absolute certainty that I have both traits.  I am aware that I exist and also that I think, reason, doubt, perceive, and I am also aware that I have desires, memories, intelligence, and sensory inputs.  I possess both sentience and self-awareness.

As Freud allegedly noted, no one can know for sure that perceived external beings (other people or animals) actually have consciousness, only that they seem to, for only our own consciousness is immediately known by us.  It is the concept of an entity that appears to have consciousness but does not that is referred to when people use the phrase "philosophical zombie".  The phrase does not refer to a reanimated corpse as in pop culture, but a thing that outwardly appears to have a conscious mind but is inwardly devoid of any sentience or self-awareness.  Short of being a telepath (telepaths are minds that can read or communicate with other minds) or omniscient like the traditional concept of God (an omniscient being has all knowledge), I cannot verify if the people I observe actually are conscious or if they merely appear to be so.

This does not seem to stop people from using inductive reasoning and assumptions to conclude that other people and animals must be conscious just like them, however.  And of course, in my everyday life I still am forced to act in my interactions with other people as if they truly do have minds, whether or not they do in reality.

While there is much more to a dissection of phenomenology and consciousness than just what I have described here, there is simply too much information to contain in a single post.  Yet consciousness is something that affects me and all beings like me without cessation!  It is immediately known by direct experience; it is impossible for it to be illusory; it is something that remains difficult to articulate and describe despite my extremely intimate awareness of it.  And it is something I plan to revisit and explore more in the future.