Exploring our own consciousness
Perhaps the best way to approach consciousness is to begin by observing… our own consciousness.
Activity : Take a few minutes to describe what you are consciously experiencing in the present moment. What are you perceiving? What are you thinking? What are you feeling?
This exercise may seem simple, but it quickly reveals its limitations. While we are all familiar with the experience of being conscious, it is surprisingly difficult to put into words this experience. We usually describe the objects around us or our current thoughts. However, what we express is already an immediate memory, and not the experience itself.
This leads us to a first fundamental tension : consciousness seems inseparable from the present, but can only be described after the fact. It is therefore intimately linked to memory, but also to our ability to represent the moment we have experienced.
Consciousness: content and process
Another difficulty arises when we confuse the contents of consciousness (what we are aware of) and the process of awareness raising (the mechanism by which something becomes conscious).
Just as describing perceived objects is not enough to explain vision, describing our thoughts or perceptions is not enough to explain consciousness. To study consciousness, we must move away from perceived objects and focus on the very process that makes these objects "present to the mind."
The role of language
Language is an imperfect tool for describing our conscious states. Some experiences elude verbalization. Sapir-Whorf theory even suggests that our language influence — even determined — our thoughts and conscious experiences.
Example: A Pintupi Aboriginal speaker, whose vocabulary includes a very specific word for a burrow dug by a monitor lizard, will be able to name and report this reality with much more richness than a French speaker. Thus, our linguistic resources shape our ability to name—and therefore structure—our conscious experiences.
Consciousness and other psychological processes
In most cases, consciousness expresses itself through processes such as vision, hearing, language or thought. This raises a fundamental question:
Is consciousness reducible to these processes, or is it something else ?Let's take a simple example: I am aware of a green plant sitting on my desk. This awareness allows me to identify it, think about it, move it, or talk about it. But does this ability simply involve the activation of perceptual functions, or is there a upper level — a conscious instance — that makes this possible?
Case studies: consciousness, lack of consciousness, or intermediate states?
Sleepwalking and automatism
Sleepwalking questions the boundary between consciousness and automatism. The famous case of Ken Parkes, in Canada in the 1980s, shows that an individual can perform a series of complex actions without conscious memory - or even in a state of automatism - and that justice itself recognizes these states as devoid of conscious intention.
This case illustrates the importance of consciousness in defining the moral and legal responsibilityWithout conscience, can we speak of intention? And without intention, can we punish?
Hemineglect and partial consciousness
There visual neglect (often linked to brain injury) shows that a patient can ignore part of their visual field — but their brain continues to subconsciously process the information. For example, a patient may subconsciously prefer a house that is not on fire to a house that is on fire, even though she claims not to see the difference. This shows that information can be treated without being aware.
Blindsight: perceiving without knowing that one is perceiving
There blindsight (or implicit vision) is even more intriguing. Patients with damage to the primary visual cortex can detect or react to visual stimuli without having no subjective consciousnessThey “see” without knowing that they see.
These phenomena highlight that perception can exist without consciousnessThis reinforces the idea that consciousness is a process distinct, and not simply a side effect of perception or attention.
Traumatic amnesia and ego awareness
Memory disorders following head trauma, such as the case reported by Antonio Damasio, show that consciousness can to fragment : some patients move from unconsciousness to a form of environmental awareness, before regaining consciousness. sense of self. These observations confirm that there is no a consciousness, but several levels or shapes of conscience.
The vocabulary of consciousness: a problem of terminology
Throughout this chapter, we have used a variety of terms: conscious perception, non-consciousness, self-awareness, awareness, etc. This semantic diversity reflects a plural reality, but also a major scientific difficulty: the lack of a unified theoretical language.
Indeed :
the same word can designate several different processes;
different words can designate one and the same phenomenon.
This complicates the development of a general theory of consciousness. Most current approaches only describe a appearance of consciousness, without accounting for it in its entirety.
Historical Perspectives: Descartes and Dualism
Modern thinking about consciousness has its roots in René Descartes, with his famous method of doubt:
“I think, therefore I am.”
By distinguishing the body (matter) from the mind (thought), Descartes lays the foundations of dualism, still at the heart of debates today. How can a physical reality like the brain generate an experience as immaterial as a feeling?
Materialist scientists assume that everything can be explained by physical phenomena. Dualists, on the other hand, believe that consciousness transcends matter. Between these two poles, the contemporary psychology tries to build a bridge.
The challenge of reductionism
If everything could be reduced to brain activity, psychology would lose its raison d'être. Saying that a person loves or suffers cannot be reduced to the assertion that "their brain is in such a state." subjective qualities of experience (qualia) escape sole neuronal observation.
It is this tension between matter and spirit, between objectivity and subjectivity, which makes consciousness so difficult to grasp. And it is also what makes its study a fascinating intellectual adventure.
Conclusion: A productive mystery
Consciousness cannot be confined to a simple definition. It lies at the intersection of memory, perception, thought, attention… but it cannot be reduced to any of these elements. Studying consciousness is question our humanity. It is also agree to navigate between science and philosophy, between empirical observation and introspection.
EN 
FR