Consciousness

Consciousness is a concept that has puzzled disciplines, including philosophy and more recently psychology and neurology, for years. Consciousness is a term that has been deemed difficult to define, with various disciplines and focuses of study taking slightly different angles. While some disciplines lay their foundation in the determination of consciousness as a valid concept, others view the idea of consciousness as a potential deception.

Dualists hold that consciousness is a property that is separate from the physical properties of the body and the brain; however, as the understanding of biology and the physical world, and specifically of the brain, has increased, the concept of consciousness as separate from physical processes has fallen into disuse. John R. Searle suggests that from a biological perspective, consciousness refers to the first-person phenomenon involving states of awareness, feeling, and perception that begin when individuals are awake and continue until they go to sleep, fall into a coma, or die. However, if consciousness is to be defined from a biological perspective, then it would have to be able to be compared with other biological processes, such as growth or digestion. These parallels have so far not been supported through empirical study, creating scientific problems with supporting consciousness from a biological perspective.

The acceptance of consciousness as a legitimate subject of scientific study in the life sciences has continued to gain prominence since the mid-20th century, replacing philosophy as the primary discipline involved in examining, defining, and explaining consciousness. As a concept, consciousness is an accepted experience of being human and is often used to explain much of human experience, awareness, and behavior. The concept of consciousness has remained elusive to study. With the inability to study consciousness comes the idea that this concept has the potential to be a great deception, a potential lie used to inaccurately explain much of the human experience.