ABSTRACT
Consciousness is the most difficult topic that psychologists investigate. Philosophers have debated the meaning of consciousness for thousands of years and experimental psychologists have tried, with mixed success, to study the topic objectively in the last hundred years. The term has many distinct meanings and senses. As Miller put it over 30 years ago, “Consciousness is a word worn smooth by a million tongues” (1962, p. 25). In trying to gain a firmer grasp on the topic, we were driven to the Macmillan Dictionary of Psychology, edited by Stuart Sutherland (1991), where we found the following definition:
Consciousness. The having of perceptions, thoughts, and feelings; awareness. The term is impossible to define except in terms that are unintelligible without a grasp of what consciousness means. Many fall into the trap of equating consciousness with self consciousness–to be conscious it is only necessary to be aware of the external world. Consciousness is a fascinating but elusive phenomenon: It is impossible to specify what it is, what it does, or why it evolved. Nothing worth reading has been written on it. (p. 90)
