Consciousness and brain activity

[Mark Lapierre]

Is there anything which rules out any possibility of finding out how consciousness and brain activity are related? (for any coherent definition of consciousness where brain activity is relevant)

Many people here agree with some form of what Steve has written a lot about, subjective reality. That perspective sees consciousness as all that there is (in other words consciousness is defined as "everything"), yet within that perspective there is the seemingly individual subjective experience of self-awareness where self is a subset of consciousness and centred on each individual human.

That self-awareness is part of the common interpretation of consciousness, which, again in part, is our subjective experience of existence. An 'objective reality' perspective sees this definition of consciousness as a result of brain activity (though the mechanisms are not fully understood).

In either (or any other) perspective, if we want a complete understanding we need to explain how that subjective experience of existence results in observable brain activity. That's where the question comes in. Does the SR perspective of consciousness rule out observable neural activity? I don't think so (since even if it's not 'real', it still happens. At least something happens, which is interpreted as brain activity and subjective experience). And if not, or if we take the OR perspective, can the link between neural activity and consciousness be found? If not, why not?

(Incidentally this deals with the 'hard' question of consciousness. I'm not expecting an answer to that question in full though, so don't fry any brain cells trying to figure it out )

[Jenny]

Originally Posted by Mark Lapierre

Many people here agree with some form of what Steve has written a lot about, subjective reality. That perspective sees consciousness as all that there is (in other words consciousness is defined as "everything"), yet within that perspective there is the seemingly individual subjective experience of self-awareness where self is a subset of consciousness and centred on each individual human.

That self-awareness is part of the common interpretation of consciousness, which, again in part, is our subjective experience of existence. An 'objective reality' perspective sees this definition of consciousness as a result of brain activity (though the mechanisms are not fully understood).

Hmmm, do I understand you correctly? Are you saying that within the ‘objective reality’ perspective the definition you use for ‘subjective reality’ is acknowledged (perhaps acknowledged is poor word choice but can't think of anything else that fits better) but the source of this perception of reality is different? By this I mean that the self rather than a subset of consciousness is instead the result of brain activity (in a way that isn't yet clearly understood)?

Originally Posted by Mark Lapierre

In either (or any other) perspective, if we want a complete understanding we need to explain how that subjective experience of existence results in observable brain activity. That's where the question comes in. Does the SR perspective of consciousness rule out observable neural activity? I don't think so (since even if it's not 'real', it still happens. At least something happens, which is interpreted as brain activity and subjective experience).

I'm not sure I understand what you are asking here. My question back to you for the sake of clarification would be does the subjective reality perspective care whether or not the larger consiousness and the subset that comprises the self in particular has observable neural activity or not? I do think the answer to that question is relevant.

My second question is this. In my opinion it is fair to say that even within an objective reality perspective there exists a concept of self that has subjective experiences of the world, would you agree? If so isn't there already some solid understandings of how subjective experiences impact neural activity? I believe so and if you have the same understanding I'm again unclear as to what you are asking - are you asking someone who embraces the subjective reality perspective for their thoughts on this or are you curious overall? Sorry, not trying to be difficult. I'm truly not clear.

Originally Posted by Mark Lapierre

And if not, or if we take the OR perspective, can the link between neural activity and consciousness be found? If not, why not?

In my opinion yes a link between neural activity and consciousness can be found but I have no idea how far off that might be.