- Subjective consciousness
Subjective consciousness refers to a state of
consciousness , in which a person is constantly aware of himself as well as outside factors. The study of this state has achieved high priority in the modernphilosophy of mind , themind-body problem orconsciousness studies , as made popular by, e.g.,David Chalmers . Subjective consciousness refers to the inner, private experience of (mainly) human beings. It is associated with thequalia made famous by Chalmers et al. This state is not to be confused with objective consciousness or theneural correlates of consciousness - though this confusion existed for much of the 20th century attendant on the rise ofbehaviourism andpositivism and the decline of the interest inintrospection made popular in the 19th and early 20th century byEdmund Husserl andWilliam James . The lack of this state, as occasionally implied by Physicalists and their ilk, would beg the question of who is the internal observer, for which all the neural processing takes place. To eliminate this internal observer leads toinfinite regress . The alternative is to accept the observer orhomunculus . This state is also associated with ancientHindu studies of themind as well as to many modern teachers, such as theDalai Llama ,U.G. Krishnamurti orG.I. Gurdjieff .
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