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Hello everyone,

Thank you so much for your participation in our discussion on consciousness!

Here is a quick summary of some of the questions that came up in our seminar tonight:

Issues around defining consciousness…

·        Is attention a necessary component of consciousness?

·        Are conscious thoughts always associated with a concept of time?

·        Is memory a necessary component of consciousness?

·        Is being aware of options for action a criteria of consciousness?

Issues around assessing consciousness…

·        What do we use as evidence for consciousness? (Self-awareness?  Morality?  Empathy?  Social understanding? Fear? Happiness?)

·        How and why do we know that our pets, or anybody around us, are conscious?

Some more questions to think about…

·        How long do we have to remember an event or some information to be able to say that we were conscious?

·        How do we know that people in a coma are really unconscious?

·        What would a classroom that enforces unconscious learning look like?  Will it be effective?

·        Are our habitual actions unconscious?

·        How come we can function without being conscious? (Like sleep-walking)

·        How much does what we don’t attend to influence our behaviors?

Looking forward to hearing more about your thoughts on consciousness…