Is the value we place on consciousness naïve? If not, what exactly then is consciousness? If so, why is consciousness such an important part of our identity?
Is the value we place on consciousness naïve? If not, what exactly then is consciousness? If so, why is consciousness such an important part of our identity?
Ms Kaura 
Personally I believe that we put too much value on consciousness as it is not very well understood at the moment so I feel that we should wait until it is further researched before we make it such an important aspect of our identity. From reading the article about zombies being human with the exception of humans having a consciousness, it was stated that a test about human conspicuousness resulted in the fact that it was merely only “rubber stamping” meaning that we decide what we are going to do before we even have time to make a truly conscious decision. So reflecting on this experiment I believe consciousness should still be important part of our identity but should be taken lightly until we really know everything about it.
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I agree with you, Sam. I agree that consciousness is hardly understood, despite its big role in our mental existence. However, don’t you think that there doesn’t need to be a scientific explanation for consciousness? Is it not enough to believe we as humans are self aware and that is what distinguishes illusion from reality, true and fake, and wrong and right? Sheer self-awareness? But, I do agree that it is in fact a large portion (if not all) of our identity.
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I disagree, I believe that if we are going to call it a large portion, even ALL of our identity, it should be something that has some form of scientific explanation. Sheer self-awareness is not enough for me to accept this is a major part of our identity, especially when we are still unsure if all animals are not self-aware as well. There are still many studies to see if animals posses some of the sentient traits we do as humans. If they do, then that would really strip us of this idea of uniqueness we get from our consciousness.
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I think it is definitely naive. To believe in something without actual concrete proof is foolish. My religious views are based on the same idea. To base who you are as a person on something we don’t even know exists seems misguided. I think human arrogance is important to consider here as well, I don’t believe we have ultimate control. I think once we realize we will never be fully in control of our consciousness can we focus on the things we can control. Sometimes we cant stop ourselves from doing some things and feeling certain ways. We should focus on making the best decisions when we can.A lot of what we do may just be by products of chemicals in our brain, it’s not our soul making decisions. Self awareness is impossible to prove, it shouldn’t be part of what makes us human. Our identity is not some definite thing. It is ever changing, we can never fully have a understanding of who we are.
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The value we place on consciousness is very naive. No one knows exactly what consciousness is, let alone if we as human beings are conscious, so it doesn’t make sense to jump to conclusions until we know more. I personally believe consciousness is such an important part of our identity because people WANT to know more about it. Consciousness can also be a matter of life or death. If another person is unconscious for a certain length of time, it can result in a loved one pulling the plug on them. It is so important to everyone and so we strive to understand it.
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Nobody really knows how to define consciousness without excluding some people who are clearly conscious, such as infants, although consciousness seems to be weighed on heavily as part of our identity. How can it be such a big part of our identity if we do not even know how to explain it? Therefore, the value we place on consciousness is very naive.
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It is difficult to answer the first question, as one is unable to define consciousness thus the value is difficult to measure. Consciousness must be of some value, however, because even without pinpointing an actual definition we have many other logic’s which will be greatly influenced by whatever definition of consciousness we find. Like abortion, and animal rights. It may be an important part of our identity simply because it is human nature to wonder about human nature.
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In my opinion, what people put so much focus on consciousness, is because consciousness defines, first of all, whether the individual is alive or not. The oppose stage of being alive is a stage of death; from there the question about what happens to our consciousness once we’re dead emerges – and that is one of the biggest question human race has ever had. I think consciousness is present in definitely every human being, in some humans more than in others, but it is still there. I don’t have an explanation how consciousness starts to exist, if it exists, but then again people don’t even have the exactly proven answer how has the whole universe came to be and what or who sparked its existence – there are, of course, different beliefs from different people.
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I do believe the value we place on consciousness naive, simply because how is one to determine what consciousness is or how we can control it. No one can really have full control over the way we feel or the things that we do. People should try and focus on the things we can control or can change, instead of trying to understand something that is far too complex to comprehend. Personally speaking I agree with David G saying that our personal identity is ever changing and it is not a definite thing that people can control. It is hard to have a full understanding of who we are if people are frequently changing.
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I believe the value we place on consciousness is naive. I personally believe this because we place a lot of value on consciousness when we do not know what consciousness is and if us, humans, are all conscious. The real question is, why do we place so much value on something we cannot define. When people try to define consciousness the definitions tend to excludes certain humans but includes certain non-humans. Maybe consciousness can never be defined, we can only be aware that we may have a consciousness. I also believe consciousness cannot be controlled so even if we could define our consciousness in the future, I believe we would not be able to control our consciousness because it is not something a person can just manipulate.
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Personally, I feel that the focus we put on consciousness is not naive. Naturally, I understand that consciousness is ever-elusive and that we may never understand consciousness, but that shouldn’t keep us from trying. For one, many people believe that consciousness is what makes us persons. To prove this point I’ll quote the definition of personhood from four different philosophers. Notice how consciousness is included in each definition: “A person is a thinking intelligent being, that has reason and reflection, and can consider itself as itself, the same thinking thing, in different times and places; which it does only by that consciousness which is inseparable from thinking,” (John Locke), “Persons are born to earlier persons and learn the arts of personhood from other persons. These arts include self-consciousness which follows from mutual recognition,” (Annette Baier), “Personhood is consciousness of objects and events and the ability to feel pain,” (Mary Ann Warren), “Personhood must include rationality, conscious mental states and intentionality, the capacity for verbal communication, and self-consciousness,” (Daniel Dennett). Why should we choose to ignore our consciousness when it is clearly such a huge part of what makes us persons? Furthermore, it can be strongly argued that consciousness, or the lack thereof, is the reason we treat animals and technology differently than we treat one another. One of John Searle’s quotes helps to explain why most machines are not considered persons in the eyes of society: “I will argue that in the literal sense the programmed computer understands what the car and the adding machine understand, namely, exactly nothing.” This conclusion seems logical when applied to technology such as cars, calculators, and phones, but many people find it more difficult to apply such logic to androids. Our natural tendency is to treat anything that looks or acts like us as persons. Perhaps this is simply our mind playing tricks on us, or perhaps it is because we can see some form of consciousness in them that we don’t see in other technology. The latter is a definite possibility since we do not fully understand consciousness yet. Knowing what this elusive idea is would enable us to make more ethical decisions when in comes to androids, animals, and even unborn babies. Not only is understanding consciousness important for human ethical decisions, but there are also certain scientific possibilities that could be linked to understanding consciousness. For instance, there is evidence that shows, with the right knowledge, we could manipulate memories. There are numerous possibilities for such technology, including treating patients with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Understanding consciousness could also give us a better understanding of mental illnesses and other things which are currently only vaguely defined. Thus, we must concede that the value we place on consciousness is not naive, foolish, or a waste of time. In fact, we must dig deeper into the mystery of consciousness in order to unlock more secrets. As we have seen numerous times throughout history, great discoveries are only made after many failures. Just imagine if Thomas Edison had given up on his lightbulb or if Henry Ford had decided to quite after his company went bankrupt for the second time. In order to better our society we must first better our understanding of ourselves by thoroughly exploring the meaning of consciousness.
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I do believe that the value we place on consciousness is naïve. Consciousness is not completely understood; who are we to decide exactly what defines it? I agree with David G saying that our personal identity is always changing and that it is not something a definite thing that people can control.
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ur values placed on consciousness are absolutely naive. Because we cannot place a universal definition on consciousness, how can we be sure one fully understands it? I support David’s argument stating that the identity is ever changing. I believe consciousness allows us to experience different events and scenarios throughout our lives, some of which may have a huge impact on our identities. Therefore, although we cannot define where consciousness begins and ends, it can be inferred that it strongly impacts our identities due to the way our experiences shape us psychologically as beings
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Our* values..
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A subject as undefined as consciousness should have no place in determining our identity. It is impossible to understand and maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Human identity may just be a mystery we never solve. I agree with Courtney that we should try to understand it, but I agree with David and everyone else who is saying that it is (at the moment) foolish to look to consciousness to define anything about ourselves.
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I do believe that the consciousness we place on memory is naive. I think this because consciousness is something we can’t define and know absolutely nothing about. Whenever we make a big discovery about consciousness it seems to be disproved or fade into the back without anyone ever knowing about it because it is way above human interpretation. I believe that consciousness is one concept that will forever pass over the heads of humans and be a concept that is known but will never be known to the complete extent at which it lives. Consciousness plays such an important part in who we are today because I believe that personality and major traits which we use daily are within consciousness. Although I believe that consciousness plays a major role in our identities, I also believe that we are naive to place such a major value on something that is as unknown as the future. In conclusion in our life time for sure, even though we know about consciousness, it will still stay the unknown.
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I believe that it is niave to place the amount of value on consciousness that we as humans do especially considering the fact that we have no solid definition for what consciousness is. Nobody knows what consciousness really is, and our value on it is too high in society. Should we value it at all? I would argue yes as unconcious people cannot make decisions for themselves and their care. Until such time that there is an accurate legal and scientific definition of consciousness, I feel we must lover the value place upon it. Perhaps when we know more it can become central to aguwnts again, but not until such a time if it does come.
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I believe that it is very naive to place so much value and invest so much identity in something that we as humans do not even fully understand at the moment. Its also unlikely we will ever know an extensive amount on consciousness because it is something that is very difficult to research and understand. It is not something tangible, but really just an idea, it is very naive to place so much self identity in an idea that is very scarcely researched.
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