And we can go further back: Kant (1787) spoke explicitly of 'inner sense,' and Locke (1690) defined consciousness as the 'perception of what passes in a man's mind.' Brentano (controversially) interpreted Aristotle's enigmatic and terse discussion of "seeing that one sees" in De Anima III.2 as an anticipation of his own 'inner perception' view.
Locke defined consciousness as "the perception of what passes in a man's own mind".
Griffin argued that scientists needed to think harder about how they defined consciousness and that the sophisticated and adaptive behaviors of some animals -- herons using bait while fishing or apes using computer keyboards to send messages to their keepers -- left open the possibility of animal consciousness.
Mr. Morgan looks at the debate that pits physicists and neuroscientists against spiritualists in an effort to define consciousness, and explores how quantum mechanics might provide the answer to what happens when we die.
One other bit of outstanding business: how to define consciousness, an attribute that would certainly justify stronger protections for the organoids and other organisms believed to have it.
The problem appears in attempts to define consciousness in a non-circular way.
Science and art collide in a probing portrait of the boundaries that define consciousness and awareness.
To fully understand what defines consciousness, we need more than a single measure of information flow.
Alexandra Nagel, although anxious to explore a possible conscious aspect of plant life, did not define consciousness, either in general terms or in terms of what it might entail for the plant.
However, the interpretation of post-decision wagering data is potentially confounded by complex factors affecting how gains and losses affect performance (Clifford, Arabzadeh, & Harris, 2008; Dienes & Seth, 2009; Schurger & Sher, 2008), and a full behavioural analysis of advantages, and disadvantages, in defining consciousness based on these economic terms is lacking.
Crick, who defines consciousness as "attention and short-term memory," has called for an intensified research effort in his book The Astonishing Hypothesis.
