Sam Harris On Defining Consciousness

[Angrboda]

In any case, there is a working definition of consciousness.  The state of being aware, either of ones environment or ones self.  We test examples against that definition by response.  If we observe a response to enviromental stimuli we posit that the example is aware, that it is conscious, but we have greater requirements for -self- awareness.  Even greater still for sentience.

I don't think it's necessarily the case that being aware implies being conscious. Consciousness is, if nothing else, a bundle of functions that creates a construct which in humans we call the conscious mind. This is to deny that our perceptions just pipe themselves to an aware center; that center is an illusion created by the construct. What ties it all together then? We don't currently know, but I think it would be a mistake to conclude that animals that behave as though they are aware are necessarily conscious. I suspect that consciousness is a specific set of behaviors that arose after the ability to be aware of one's environment and respond to it.

For me, the phenomena that tell me the most about consciousness is the slippery unreality that exists between being asleep and being awake. This unreality doesn't appear unreal at that time, though once we become fully aroused, some of it's contents can be seen to be incoherent and make no sense. This is the brain that is conscious, yet not fully coordinated. It can make the unreal seem real. This is also a feature of the awake mind - it can make the unreal seem real - it didn't lose that ability in coming to lucidity. It's just being used to create multiple stable illusions. It is these illusions which we call consciousness. And I think it would be a mistake not to presume that this ability to construct the set of illusions emerged largely fully formed at some point in evolutionary history.