What is consciousness?

Consciousness tells us who we are. At the same time it is frighteningly easy to manipulate. Will we ever understand its meaning? Four researchers discussed.

What is consciousness?
From series: Great questions Philosophy: "Forget free will!" Consciousness tells us who we are. At same time it is frighteningly easy to manipulate. Will we ever understand its meaning? Four researchers discussed. By Saskia Gerhard October 18, 2017, 19:17 Uhr49 comments © Mads Perch/Getty Images, installation time online content
  • Page 1 — "Forget free will!"
  • Page 2 — some dream of storing ir consciousness on hard drives
  • Read on a page

    Wher conscious nutrition or environmentally conscious behavior, wher under conscious perception or unconscious error: Every person is constantly grappling with his or her consciousness. It determines how he acts, what he says, how he perceives ors and his whole environment. But what is actually consciousness? Why am I? We have been looking for answers to se big questions in Liveblog with four researchers.

    The first is consideration of wher re is a generally valid form of consciousness. "Actually, it's crazy that we assume that most people have a similar consciousness to ourselves," says Philosphin and journalist Leonie Seng. "How can we know that?"

    The Neurophilosoph Stephan mucus refers to this in his definition: "Conscious experiences are only accessible only to person or living being who has it." And only y knew how experiences felt. This brings science to its limits, because consciousness cannot be seen or measured from outside. "We need to interpret behavioral observations or measurements of brain," says mucus.

    Communication problems, for example, are often due to fact that people perceive situations differently and are aware of an act differently. "It is a miracle that we can communicate at all," says Leonie Seng.

    "Animals cannot think of a negative thought"

    Wher or organisms have an awareness, researchers are trying to fathom animal experiments. To do this, you have developed mirror test: monkeys, cats, dogs and or animals, a mirror is placed, n it is checked wher you recognize it. Some apes do not pass test, cats and dogs. "The question is wher se behavior tests really show what we mean by consciousness," says Seng.

    The medical doctor Karin Schumacher accuses you of not being able to discuss feelings such as joy, sadness, curiosity or fear, just because you do not pass mirror test. "However, dogs can also smell much better than see," says Schumacher. Therefore, y can easily identify mselves – albeit via an odour test with urine samples. I wonder now how well people would cut off on such a Riechtest. " Dogs use ir senses differently to consciously perceive things.

    The neuropsychologist and ologian Christian Hoppe communicates consciousness and thinking and points out that animals, according to certain criteria, at least do not do latter: "They do not ask questions, do not ask for reasons, cannot think of a negating thought ."

    Why is man able to do what no or being knows? Species and survival instincts could be reasons, says Karin Schumacher. "Thanks to our 2.5 million gigabyte memory in head and a few or evolutionary accomplishments, we don't have to constantly reinvent wheel or get food." which allows us to discuss issues such as universe, life and death, or even consciousness.

    Date Of Update: 19 October 2017, 12:03
    NEXT NEWS