What's This Thing Called Consciousness?

by frankiespeakin 38 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  frankiespeakin

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consciousness

  Vedanta

  According to Vedanta, awareness is not a product of physical processes and can be considered under four aspects. The first is waking consciousness (jagaritasthana), the identification with “I” or “me” in relationship with phenomenal experiences with external objects. The second aspect is dream consciousness (svapna-sthana), which embodies the same subject/object duality as the waking state. The third aspect of consciousness is deep sleep (susupti), which is non-dual as a result of holding in abeyance all feelings, thoughts, and sensations. The final aspect is the consciousness that underlies and transcends the first three aspects (turiya) also referred to as a trans-cognitive state (anubhava) or a state of self-realization or freedom from body-mind identification (moksha). [ 66 ] The state of turiya has been correlated with physiological and bio chemical changes in the body. [ 67 ] Gaudiya Vedanta recognizes a fifth aspect of consciousness in which God becomes subordinate to bhakti. [ 68 ]

  [edit] Vijñana

  In Buddhism, consciousness ( viñña?a ) is included in the five classically defined experiential "aggregates". The aggregates are seen as empty of self-nature; that is, they arise dependent on causes and conditions. The cause for consciousness arising (viñña ? a) is the arising of another aggregate (physical or mental); and, consciousness arising in turn gives rise to one or more of the mental (nama) aggregates. The causation chain identified in the aggregate (khandha) model overlaps the conditioning chain in Dependent Origination (paticcasamuppada) model. [ 69 ] Consciousness is the third link, between mind body mental formations and name & form in the traditional Twelve Causes (nidana) of Dependent Origination. [ 70 ] The six classes of consciousness are: eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, nose-consciousness, tongue-consciousness, body-consciousness, intellect-consciousness. [ 71 ] The following aspects are traditionally highlighted within Dependent Origination:

  • consciousness is conditioned by mental fabrications (sa?khara);
  • consciousness and the mind-body (namarupa) are interdependent; and,
  • consciousness acts as a "life force" by which there is a continuity across rebirths.
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  frankiespeakin

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consciousness

  Physical

  Since the dawn of Newtonian science with its vision of simple mechanical principles governing the entire universe, some philosophers have been tempted by the idea that even consciousness could be explained in purely physical terms. The first influential writer to propose such an idea explicitly was Julien Offray de La Mettrie, in his book Man a Machine (L'homme machine). [ 46 ]

  The most influential modern physical theories of consciousness are based on psychology and neuroscience. Theories proposed by neuroscientists such as Gerald Edelman [ 47 ] and António Damásio , [ 48 ] and by philosophers such as Daniel Dennett, [ 49 ] seek to explain access consciousness and phenomenal consciousness in terms of neural events occurring within the brain. Many other neuroscientists, such as Christof Koch, [ 50 ] have explored the neural basis of consciousness without attempting to frame all-encompassing global theories. At the same time, computer scientists working in the field of Artificial Intelligence have pursued the goal of creating digital computer programs that can simulate or embody consciousness.

  Some theorists—most of whom are physicists—have argued that classical physics is intrinsically incapable of explaining the holistic aspects of consciousness, but that quantum theory provides the missing ingredients. Several theorists have therefore proposed quantum mind (QM) theories of consciousness; the most notable theories falling into this category include the Holonomic brain theory of Karl H. Pribram and David Bohm, and the Orch-OR theory formulated by Stuart Hameroff and Roger Penrose. Some of these QM theories offer descriptions of phenomenal consciousness, as well as QM interpretations of access consciousness. None of the quantum mechanical theories has been confirmed by experiment, and many scientists and philosophers consider the arguments for an important role of quantum phenomena to be unconvincing. [ 51 ]
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  frankiespeakin

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idealism_(philosophy)

  Monistic idealism is a metaphysical theory which states that consciousness, not matter, is the ground of all being. It is a monistic theory because it holds that there is only one type of thing in the universe, and a form of idealism because it holds that one thing to be consciousness. In India this concept is central to Vedanta philosophy. Proponents include Amit Goswami [ 7 ] and the Hindu philosophy Kashmir Shaivism
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  frankiespeakin

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idealism
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  frankiespeakin

  http://journalofcosmology.com/Consciousness139.html
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  flipper

  FRANKIESPEAKIN - " What's This thing Called Consciousness ? " It's called being awake . The opposite of being unconscious, asleep. ( Just joking ) Peace out, Mr. Flipper
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  HintOfLime

  The part I've been pondering is this:

  What exactly is the 'cursor' in concious thought? In a neural network, what maintains linear thought? Beyond 'reflex' response, how is it that we are able to associate cause with effect? How is it that we are able to string multiple discreet concepts together within the rules of english grammer? How do neurons learn a long sequence of discreet events - such as the notes in a musical composition - while maintaining a correct sense of timing with the 'gaps' between events?

  To me, there must be a 'cursor' in the human neural system - a yet unidentified system that establishes the order of consideration and construction in the left brain.

  - Lime
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  frankiespeakin

  Hint,

  I guess I'm thinking the same thing when i ask: Who is doing the watching through my eyes, who is feeling, who is hearing, who is smelling and tasting,, perhaps it is a quantum universal self caught up in the hierarchical entanglement of the mind?

  Is the mind an epiphenomena of matter or are they both of the same thing both having their ground of being from consciousness itself?
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  frankiespeakin

  Self aware universe:

  http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_psycho08.htm

  Buddha tells us that,

  "There is an Unborn, Unoriginated, Uncreated, Unformed. If there were not this Unborn, this Unoriginated, this Uncreated, this Unformed, escape from the world of the born, the originated, the created, the formed would not be possible."

  But there is this essential ground, and it is possible to "escape" space-time, according to Buddha.

  If the brain-mind is itself an object in a non-local consciousness that encompasses all reality, then what we call objective empirical reality is within this consciousness. The one becomes many through self-reference, fragmentation into tangled hierarchies of self-iterating information.

  The trick is to distinguish between consciousness and awareness.

  In processes of which we are aware classical models prevail. When we consciously see, consciousness collapses the quantum state of the brain-mind. Unconscious processing does not effect collapse of the quantum wave-function, pinning down quantum entities to one reality. Thus, unconscious processing permits the expression of non-local phenomena.
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  breakfast of champions

  Read "The Mystery of Consciousness" by John Searle. No answers but interesting ideas.