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ps2023 - thinking, emotion & consciousness > consciousness > Flashcards

consciousness Flashcards

1
Q

what 3 topics do the big questions in science revolve around?

A
  • universe
  • life
  • consciousness
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2
Q

what is the conventional assumption: universe?

A
  • the physical world
  • the absolute truth
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3
Q

what is the conventional assumption: life?

A
  • our body
  • a psychical object that can self-grow
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4
Q

what is the conventional assumption: consciousness?

A
  • non-physical
  • emergent property of cellular interaction
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5
Q

what is the conventional assumption?

A
  • universe is more fundamental than life
  • life is more fundamental than consciousness
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6
Q

what is the fundamental fact/first principle that one can be absolutely certain about?

A
  • everything we know about our body (life) and the physical world (universe) is via our own consciousness
  • we may doubt the accuracy of our conscious experience but we cannot doubt the fact we are experiencing
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7
Q

what is the only fundamental fact/first principle we can be certain about?

A

the fact we are experiencing

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8
Q

consciousness = ?

A

experiencing

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9
Q

what can we infer from our own consciousness?

A
  • the existence of our body (life)
  • the physical world (universe)
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10
Q

what do linguistic labels, such as UNIVERSE, MATTER, SPACE, TIME, LIFE, etc., reflect?

A

a specific form of our conscious experience

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11
Q

reasoning from first principle: what did Max Planck say?

A
  • regard consciousness as fundamental, matter as derivative from consciousness
  • we cannot get behind consciousness
  • everything we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness
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12
Q

when is the only time we are not conscious/exoperiencing?

A

during dreamless sleep

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13
Q

why does consciousness not equal self-awareness?

A
  • self-awareness is a specific form of conscious experience
  • it does not equal consciousness
  • one can have consciousness without self-awareness, such as during early childhood or certain meditation
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14
Q

why does consciousness not equal awareness?

A
  • awareness is a specific form of conscious experience
  • it does not equal consciousness
  • one can have consciousness without awareness, such as during hallucination or during contentless consciousness
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15
Q

why does consciousness not equal intelligence?

A
  • one can have intelligence without consciousness, such as artificial intelligence
  • one can have consciousness without intelligence, such as during early childhood or contentless consciousness
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16
Q

why does consciousness not equal cognition?

A
  • one can have cognition without consciousness, such as during unconscious learning
  • one can have consciousness without cognition, such as during dream sleep or severe dementia
17
Q

why does consciousness not equal sensory processing?

A
  • one can have sensory processing without consciousness, namely unconscious sensory processing
  • one can have consciousness without sensory processing, such as during dream sleep or sensory deprivation
18
Q

why does consciousness not equal behaviour?

A
  • one can have behaviour without consciousness, namely unconscious behaviour
  • one can have consciousness without behaviour, such as during dream sleep or a resting state
19
Q

without consciousness, a person would … ?

A
  • function akin to a machine or robot
  • have sensory processing with no visual, auditory, taste, somatosensory or olfactory experience
  • have behaviour with no experience of planning, intending, expecting or desiring
20
Q

what would a life without consciousness look like from a first-person perspective?

A

to this person, such a life is meaningless, as this person will not be able to experience anything, including the feeling of meaningfulness

21
Q

what would a person without consciousness look like from a third-person perspective and why?

A
  • to others, this person will appear to be conscious and such a life will appear to be meaningful
  • this is because from a third-person perspective, behaviour is what can be directly observed and consciousness is what can only be inferred from behaviour and if person exhibits same behaviour as someone who is conscious, others will infer this person is also conscious and experiencing life
22
Q

why may some prefer someone to not be conscious/experiencing when functioning?

A
  • as long as this person can function and provide service for them, they will consider the life of this person to be meaningful, with or without consciousness
  • may even prefer this person to be functioning without experiencing, so that they will not be held accountable for the suffering of this person
23
Q

why is a life without consciousness bad?

A
  • meaning of life lies in the beholder of consciousness
  • a life without this has no meaning in and by itself
24
Q

does consciousness define existence?

A

YES

25
Q

_% of patients diagnosed as vegetative state are conscious?

A

40%

26
Q

socially, the ultimate judgement of a person’s character and liability is based on ___ rather than ___?

A
  • consciousness
  • behaviour
27
Q

what is the longstanding legal principle in California regarding liability of unconscious behaviour?

A
  • someone should not be guilty of committing a crime if they were not conscious of their behaviour
  • in situations where involuntary intoxication or some other factor made a person unable to control their behaviour, they may have a valid legal defence for whatever conduct may have been committed while unconscious
28
Q

how can we tell real unconscious behaviour from faked UB?

A

we need to understand the brain basis of consciousness, separating that from the brain (basis of behaviour) and the brain (basis of sensory processing)

29
Q

how can we measure consciousness?

A
  • to measure consciousness, one needs to have the ability to introspect as well as the tool to report
  • “WHAT contents constitute a conscious experience” and “HOW these contents are structured to constitute the conscious experience”
30
Q

what is an active research area regarding measuring fake vs real consciousness?

A

developing ways to measure consciousness that overcome the limitation of introspection and report is an active research area

31
Q

without the ability of ___ one would not be able to measure, from the first-person perspective, one’s own conscious experience?

A

introspect

32
Q

with the ability to introspect but without the ___, one would not be able to communicate one’s own conscious experience to others, and measure, from the third-person perspective, others’ conscious experience?

A

tool to report

33
Q

it is often assumed that we have the ability to ___ our conscious experience, and our ___ can serve as the tool to report our conscious experience?

A
  • introspect
  • language
34
Q

what is sleep state misperception?

A

sleep state misperception is a condition where one may feel like that they were awake and conscious all night, but were in fact asleep all night

35
Q

what does sleep state misperception show?

A

we do not necessarily have the ability to introspect our conscious experience

36
Q

why can our language not necessarily serve as the tool to report our conscious experience?

A
  • our language cannot steadily map onto our conscious experience
  • our conscious experience is constantly changing, because of brain plasticity; by contrast, our language remains relatively stable
  • the same language (e.g., “feeling very tired”) can correspond to very different conscious experience at different moments for the same person
37
Q

what are the 3 ways we can link consciousness to the brain?

A
  • localisation of consciousness
  • structural basis of consciousness
  • functional basis of consciousness

ps2023 - thinking, emotion & consciousness (19 decks)

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