Introduction: Consciousness, an elusive evidence
Consciousness is one of the most fundamental experiences in human life. We have all experienced being conscious—except during certain phases of sleep or unconsciousness. It doesn't take an expert to distinguish between a moment of conscious experience and a moment of unconsciousness.
But if consciousness seems familiar to us, it remains a mystery : elusive, complex, resistant to scientific analysis. The more we try to define or explain it, the more it seems to elude us—like a wet bar of soap. And yet, consciousness is at the heart of what it means to be human.
Consciousness: mirror of our humanity
Our conscious experiences shape our identity. They allow us to differentiate ourselves from others, build our autobiographical memory, reflect on our emotions, and make decisions. They inform our conception of "self" and "I."
Contemporary psychology attempts to explain how consciousness works, how it interacts with memory, perception, language, and even emotion. But despite significant advances, no theory yet seems able to fully "explain" consciousness.
A multidisciplinary exploration
A series of articles on this blog will explore the major questions and debates surrounding consciousness: its definitions, its characteristics, its explanatory approaches—psychological, cognitive, biological, and philosophical.
This exploration will be rooted in the history of ideas. For a long time, there was no clear separation between psychology and philosophy. Consciousness, before becoming an object of science, was the subject of existential reflection. Even today, psychology and philosophy enrich each other in the study of this central phenomenon.
Consciousness and other psychological domains
Consciousness constantly interferes with other mental functions:
Autobiographical memoir : we cannot study self-memory without appealing to the awareness of events. Freud already mentioned the role of repression in making certain experiences unconscious.
Perception Visual illusions like the Müller-Lyer illusion show us that our conscious perception is not always faithful to reality. However, it is from our conscious judgments that researchers study these illusions.
Language : when someone is asked whether a sentence is correct or not, they produce a conscious report of his linguistic feelings. Researchers then compare it with other indicators (such as reading time), in the hope of reducing introspection bias.
Emotion : If someone tells you "I'm angry," we generally assume that their consciousness accurately reflects their emotional state—although this is not always the case.
In all these areas, the consciousness is used as an indirect tool measurement, without being studied as such. It is assumed that transparency : what we say about our consciousness faithfully reflects our internal states. But is this always true?
A turbulent history
For much of the 20th century, scientific psychology avoided the study of consciousness, considering it too subjective. Behaviorist approaches even considered it unscientific. It is only recently that consciousness has once again become a legitimate subject of research, particularly thanks to advances in cognitive neuroscience.
Today, some specialized scientific journals are dedicated to him, international conferences bring together philosophers and researchers, and consciousness is once again recognized as a central question in psychology.
The program for this series of articles
We will explore the major dimensions of consciousness through four sections:
Chapter 1 : our intuitive conception of consciousness, illustrated by real cases. We will see the different meanings of the word "consciousness" and its historical evolution.
Chapter 2 : the fundamental characteristics of consciousness. While researchers agree on certain traits, they differ widely on their explanation.
Chapter 3 : the two major psychological approaches to consciousness — cognitive and biological — and their contribution to understanding the phenomenon.
Chapter 4 : philosophical perspectives on consciousness, their contributions and their limits.
Conclusion: a quest still open
Consciousness is arguably the phenomenon closest to us… and the most difficult to grasp. Through this series of articles, I wish to offer a accessible and rigorous space for reflection, to better understand this mystery that inhabits every moment of our life.
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