What da heck is "Consciousness"?

One of the unresolved questions from "65 Deep Philosophical Questions" was;

When does consciousness begin?

Let's try to first identify what da heck it is and then answer when it begins, okay? :)

Here's what Wiki says;

"Consciousness is the state or quality of awareness, or, of being aware of an external object or something within oneself. It has been defined as: sentience, awareness, subjectivity, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind. Despite the difficulty in definition, many philosophers believe that there is a broadly shared underlying intuition about what consciousness is. As Max Velmans and Susan Schneider wrote in The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness: "Anything that we are aware of at a given moment forms part of our consciousness, making conscious experience at once the most familiar and most mysterious aspect of our lives.''" (Wikipedia: Consciousness).


Basically it's about being aware or it's about the ability to experience.


Here's what Wiki says about awareness;


"Awareness is a relative concept. An animal may be partially aware, may be subconsciously aware, or may be acutely unaware of an event. Awareness may be focused on an internal state, such as a visceral feeling, or on external events by way of sensory perception. Awareness provides the raw material from which animals develop qualia, or subjective ideas about their experience. Insects have awareness that you are trying to swat them or chase after them. But insects do not have consciousness in the usual sense, because they lack the brain capacity for thought and understanding." (Wikipedia: Awareness).


So basically insects have awareness but not consciousness. Consciousness seems to be a deeper version of awareness.


Here's what Wiki says about sentience (the ability to experience);

"Sentience is the capacity to feel, perceive, or experience subjectively" (Wikipedia: Sentience).


So if we are able to experience and feel from our own perspective, we have sentience. Consciousness is like a deeper level of sentience, a deeper level of awareness. Basically almost every creature can be aware or have sentience but when it comes to the deeper level, we human beings top all of them.

Okay so consciousness is a human trait. I could be wrong but let's go with that for now.


Now then, where exactly is our consciousness?


When you brief through Wiki's Consciousness explanation, you kinda get the feel that most people believe our consciousness is in our brains.

It's probably right but it just seems so...so...

  ABSTRACT   

and

  AMBIGUOUS  

Because it's not something you can see with an x-ray or through an MRI, right? It doesn't even come in any particular form!

Consciousness, having consciousness sounds like either a feeling or a human trait. When you feel...that comes from your heart...

What if consciousness wasn't in your brain?...what if it was in your heart, or, or, in your whole entire body and if we didn't have it,

WE

WILL

NOT

EXIST!

Because we are aware of our surroundings, because we can acknowledge our experiences, because we can feel, we are here and alive and existing. What if that's all it was? What if the only reason we are here is because we are acknowledging the fact that we are here through our consciousness?

If we did not have this trait, this consciousness, we probably will be no different then an insect or we may not exist at all. Because even the fact that we know we exist is fueled by our consciousness.

...

...

Thank god we have consciousness! :/


To answer the two questions:


1. What da heck is "Consciousness"?

Answer: Well, it is a human trait on the deeper level of awareness and sentience. It is why we are here and aware of the fact that we are. It is the essence of our existence. If we weren't aware of our existence, we might not exist at all.
Consciousness provides awareness and sentience for us but on a deeper level so that we may be more rooted into the "now" and "here".


2. When does consciousness begin?

Answer: It begins at the deeper level. On the shallower level, our awareness and sentience are just like those of an animal. A cat, dog, bird...very simple. But on the deeper level, that's where consciousness begins. Only humans have it and that's what makes us even more unique creatures that have come forth on this planet Earth.


There. Done.


See ya later, alligators.