ABSTRACT
To understand the neurobiology of consciousness, it is first necessary to understand the problems that consciousness poses in general. To an adult human being with a normally functioning brain, reality, at first pass, seems to be composed of two vividly real categories: the conscious self, and the external reality composed of things that appear to have an inherent reality separate from the conscious self. The things in external reality also appear to be represented in, or known by, the conscious self. Thus the classical philosophical problem of subjectivity versus objectivity is only a problem because the brain, under ordinary conditions, insists on processing reality in this manner. To the naive observer, there is an absolutely certain sense that there is a reality external to the self which appears to be characterized by a heavy, substantive reality often termed “matter” or “material” reality. The naive observer also has the absolutely certain sense of a conscious self that seems to have a light, changeable, and ethereal quality often termed “mind,” “spirit,” or sometimes “soul.” Unfortunately, this naive terminology is anything but exact.
