Knowledge you can walk. Read the idea below, then step up to the general, across to peers or down to the specific.
Mental
Human Consciousness
Consciousness is being aware of your own thoughts and feelings and of the world around you.
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The idea
Consciousness is being aware of something, either inside yourself, such as a thought or feeling, or in the world around you. Philosophers, scientists and theologians have explained, analyzed and debated it for millennia. There is still no agreement on exactly what should be studied, or even on whether consciousness can be treated as a scientific idea. Some thinkers say consciousness is the same thing as the mind, while others see it as one part of the mind.
Consciousness can take several forms. It may be simple awareness, the awareness of being aware, or self-awareness. Thinking about your own thinking is called metacognition. Doctors also use a medical definition of consciousness, which helps them tell a coma apart from other states.
People describe consciousness in many different ways. Some describe it as the line between the self and its surroundings, or as simply being awake. Others picture it as a "stream" of thoughts and sensations, or as a mental process of the brain. In everyday life, a person moves through different states of consciousness, from full alertness to daydreaming, sleep and dreams.
Check yourself
Question 1 of 3
What is thinking about your own thinking called?
Composition
what it's made of
- Awareness — Noticing something inside yourself or in the world around you.
- Self-awareness — Knowing yourself as a separate person with your own thoughts and feelings.
- Metacognition — Awareness of your own awareness, or thinking about your own thinking.
- Wakefulness — Simply being awake, one of the plainest descriptions of being conscious.
- Perception — Taking in and making sense of information from the senses.
- Inner life — Private thought, imagination and will, explored by looking within.
Connection
how it relates
Under Mental
Change
how and why it evolves
- Past
- In the past, consciousness meant a person's inner life: introspection, private thought, imagination and will. The modern idea of consciousness is often traced to John Locke, who defined the word in a book published in 1690.
- Now
- Today the word often also covers thinking, experience, feeling and perception. With so many ideas in play, researchers still wonder whether they are asking the right questions.
- Next
- Brain science and philosophy will probably keep debating how the brain gives rise to awareness, and new ways of studying the brain may sharpen those questions.