ABSTRACT
WHAT IS CONSCIOUSNESS? Perhaps the most amazing aspect of being human is consciousness, which, roughly considered, is a subjective awareness of our internal mental states. If somebody came up and pinched you, you would feel the resulting pain. If you got into an argument with your best friend, you might feel anger or regret. When solving a math problem, you are aware of what it is like to represent the numbers and manipulate them in various ways. As the above examples show, we can be aware of many diff erent types of mental contents including perceptions, emotions and thoughts. Th ese contents can be representations of the outside world as when we look at the items on our desk. Alternately, they can be internally generated ideas as when we imagine going to an exotic country we have never visited. It is also possible to be conscious of ourselves as a particular mental entity distinct from the external environment.
