GC: n
S: VWm – https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-consciousness-2795922 (last access: 2 October 2022); ScAm – https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-consciousness/ (last access: 2 October 2022).
N: 1. 1630s, “internal knowledge,” from conscious + -ness. Meaning “state of being aware of what passes in one’s own mind” is from 1670s; meaning “state of being aware” of anything is from 1746. Consciousness-raising is attested from 1968.
2. consciousness, a psychological condition defined by the English philosopher John Locke as “the perception of what passes in a man’s own mind.”
3. In the early 19th century the concept was variously considered. Some philosophers regarded it as a kind of substance, or “mental stuff,” quite different from the material substance of the physical world. Others thought of it as an attribute characterized by sensation and voluntary movement, which separated animals and men from lower forms of life and also described the difference between the normal waking state of animals and men and their condition when asleep, in a coma, or under anesthesia (the latter condition was described as unconsciousness). Other descriptions included an analysis of consciousness as a form of relationship or act of the mind toward objects in nature, and a view that consciousness was a continuous field or stream of essentially mental “sense data,” roughly similar to the “ideas” of earlier empirical philosophers.
4. Consciousness vs Awareness: Consciousness and Awareness, both words seem to carry the same meaning, but they differ semantically as there is a difference between them. Both these terms function as nouns in the English language. Awareness is having knowledge of something. On the other hand, consciousness is the state of being aware of something and this can be regarded as more spiritual kind of definition. When a person is aware of something, he/she may feel it or just sense it without exactly knowing what it is. In contrast, somebody becomes conscious about something means that he/she is fully aware of or he/she has complete understanding over the substance. Let us look at the terms in detail.
5. Conscience: The term “conscience” translates the Latin “conscientia”, which refers to sharing “knowledge” (scientia) “with” (con-), and which in turns translates the equivalent Greek term suneidenai (see Pierce 1955 and Sorabji 2014 for an etymological analysis of the term). The literal meaning of the term does not specify the type of knowledge involved and whom that knowledge is shared with. However, the concept has traditionally been used to refer to moral knowledge (we talk indifferently of conscience and moral conscience) that is shared with oneself. This reference to the self does not rule out that the source of the morality in question be external to the self. For example, it might be God, as in the Christian tradition, or the influence of one’s culture or of one’s upbringing, as in the Freudian theory of the Super-Ego. Reference to the self indicates that, from a psychological point of view, conscience involves introspection, awareness of one’s behavior, and self-assessment. As we shall see, although these aspects often overlap, they are psychologically and conceptually distinct functions.
6. Cultural Interrelation: Consciousness in Locke (2016) by Shelley Weinberg.
S: 1. OED – https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=consciousness (last access: 2 October 2022). 2&3. EncBrit – https://www.britannica.com/topic/consciousness (last access: 2 October 2022). 4. DB – https://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-consciousness-and-vs-awareness/#:~:text=Consciousness%20vs%20Awareness&text=Awareness%20is%20having%20knowledge%20of,exactly%20knowing%20what%20it%20is. (last access: 2 October 2022). 5. STAND – https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/conscience/ (last access: 2 October 2022). 6. NDPR – https://ndpr.nd.edu/reviews/consciousness-in-locke/ (last access: 2 October 2022).
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