Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The state or condition of being conscious.
- noun A sense of one's personal or collective identity, including the attitudes, beliefs, and sensitivities held by or considered characteristic of an individual or group.
- noun Special awareness or sensitivity.
- noun Alertness to or concern for a particular issue or situation.
- noun In psychoanalysis, the conscious.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The state of being conscious; the act or state of mind which distinguishes a waking from a sleeping person; the state of being aware of one's mental acts or states.
- noun Specifically Self-consciousness (which See).
- noun Perception; thought; intellectual action in general.
- noun A general phase of thought and feeling: as, the moral consciousness; the religious consciousness.
- noun An intuitive perception or persuasion; a state of being aware; an inward recognition;a feeling.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The state of being conscious; knowledge of one's own existence, condition, sensations, mental operations, acts, etc.
- noun Immediate knowledge or perception of the presence of any object, state, or sensation. See the Note under
Attention . - noun rare Feeling, persuasion, or expectation; esp., inward sense of guilt or innocence.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The state of being
conscious oraware ;awareness .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun having knowledge of
- noun an alert cognitive state in which you are aware of yourself and your situation
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word consciousness.
Examples
-
Tribal consciousness is _revolutionary _consciousness: mutable and fluid and transforming.
-
It introduced into the national consciousness, Henry James wrote in 1879, by the national consciousness undoubtedly meaning his own as well, a certain sense of proportion and relation, of the world being a more complicated place than it had hitherto seemed, the future more treacherous, success more difficult
-
Yet, all the while, our consciousness, _so far as we are conscious of our consciousness_, was busy with other thoughts. "
Hygienic Physiology : with Special Reference to the Use of Alcoholic Drinks and Narcotics Joel Dorman Steele
-
While not fully accepting the theory of "duplex personality," _i.e. _, active consciousness and _subliminal consciousness_ (Myers 'name for the pseudo-dormant consciousness), as having been proven, Newbold says: "Of all the theories developed from the point of independence, Mr. Myers' is the most comprehensive in its scope, is kept in most constant touch with what the author regards as facts, and displays the greatest philosophic insight. "[
Religion and Lust or, The Psychical Correlation of Religious Emotion and Sexual Desire James Weir 1881
-
Hereafter, then, we shall continue to use the term consciousness as descriptive of that part of our mentality which constitutes what is commonly known as the "mind"; while that mental force, which, so far as our animal life is concerned, operates through the sympathetic nerve system, we shall hereafter describe as "_sub_conscious."
-
Coming again, to our consideration of the term consciousness, we will take
-
How do different “programs,” all running at once, interact with each other to produce what we call consciousness?
In the Valley of the Shadow James L. Kugel 2011
-
How do different “programs,” all running at once, interact with each other to produce what we call consciousness?
In the Valley of the Shadow James L. Kugel 2011
-
Heinz Pagels, the esteemed theoretical physicist, once stated: "If you deny the objectivity of the world, unless you observe it and are conscious of it (as many prominent physicists have), then you end up with solipsism -- the belief that your consciousness is the only one."
Robert Lanza, M.D.: Rethinking the Nature of Life M.D. Robert Lanza 2010
-
How do different “programs,” all running at once, interact with each other to produce what we call consciousness?
In the Valley of the Shadow James L. Kugel 2011
oroboros commented on the word consciousness
For a completely different slant, c.f.,The Constant Neural Disquiet: Mechanics 101
January 22, 2007
oroboros commented on the word consciousness
"re: the question of how consciousness could arise from matter generating an inexplicable mystery...I affirm that this mystery is purely artificial and grows out of assuming an inadequate base of reference. For 'matter,' 'thing,' and 'relation' are creatively constructed notions and by no means originally given material. On the contrary, consciousness is original and is presupposed in the very power to recognize and formulate a problem...Thus every element that is brought into any speculation is, of necessity, within the field of consciousness...This much we know, even though we know nothing else, 'Consciousness is.' For it is presupposed even in the acknowledgement of ignorance and in the agnostical and skeptical attitudes...Consciousness is the common denominator underlying the possibility of any philosophy, world view, religious attitude, art, or science. I, therefore, affirm the systematic primacy of consciousness as such."
Also see: consciousness-without-an-object.
--Franklin Merrell-Wolff
June 17, 2007
oroboros commented on the word consciousness
...the structure of Life is the structure of consciousness -- not as metaphor, not as simile, not as a reflection. Plenty of Life's body can hear that. It is so obvious, and it eats up almost all of the world of artistic or literary criticism, because there is no literature, there is no music, there is no sculpture, that is a metaphor for life -- it IS Life. Nothing is a metaphor for anything else except to children. You have to tell a child, "Don't do so-and-so." "Why?" "Well, because a troll will jump out and nibble your toes away and you don't want that to happen." You can't tell a child exactly what he's asking you to tell, so you speak to him in metaphors.
To believe that there is something humans do, willfully or not, that has a secret message, is to still be playing in the kindergarten arena, even if you're doing it to yourself. To forge a new kind of consciousness is to be able to forge a new kind of sight. You must SEE that the structure of Life is the structure of consciousness. This is so obvious that no one notices it...
--Jan Cox
October 7, 2007
lea commented on the word consciousness
"A human being is a part of the whole called by us 'Universe', a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." - Albert Einstein.
March 11, 2009
Louises commented on the word consciousness
His consciousness was like a lethal ocean undertow. Before you knew it you were in cold water, miles from shore. From "The Last Werewolf" by Glen Duncan.
March 21, 2012
Louises commented on the word consciousness
Sometimes he was the Red Riding Hood wolf, or the wolf spoke with his voice. You'll be seeing me very soon. I could feel you close all day. Me too. Sometimes he was just himself, invisibly next to me on the couch, the source - as in heat source or light source - of unloneliness. The way sometimes he'd put his hand in the small of my back. Is was as if my consciousness was there, in my sacrum, not in my head. Or at least the bit of my consciousness that was terrified of having to go back to being alone. From "The Last Werewolf" by Glen Duncan.
March 27, 2012