A Philosophical Happy Hour on the nature, growth, and importance of understanding consciousness.
The concept of “consciousness” today seems rather important: it is brought up in questions about artificial intelligence, neuroscience, the development of habits, “mindfulness”, self-improvement, and countless other related issues. But what is consciousness? Few good definitions seem available. Even many persons professionally engaged in its study seem hard-pressed to define it well.
Let us think through a few points to bring some focus to our conversation.
Nature of Consciousness
Are you conscious? You probably think so. And you probably have pretty good reason to think so. You are, after all, reading these words and thinking about what they signify. You are probably even aware of yourself doing this. In other words, you are experiencing not only awareness of the words you are reading, but a self-awareness. Our experience of consciousness as human beings entails a reflexive bent back towards the “inner” experience of our being. We cannot say whether it is the same for other animals—but certainly they seem conscious or aware of other entities, and in some measure of themselves as relating to those others.
In 1996, David Chalmers—then a professor of philosophy at UC Santa Cruz—published a book titled The Conscious Mind, in which he claimed that explanation of consciousness’ existence is a “hard problem”, for it seems to entail elements irreducible to the corporeal constitution of the human body: as, for instance, the feeling of fear is something different from the neurochemical processes of the brain and nervous system. Some have sought physicalist answers to this problem. Others have persisted in a Cartesian substance dualism.
Since Chalmers’ book, many others have attempted to address the problem. Much progress has also been made in the studies of neuro- and cognitive sciences. However, the nature of consciousness seems yet elusive. Other philosophical paradigms—such as the Aristotelian-Thomistic, the Peircean-semiotic, and the Husserlian-phenomenological—have proposed alternative routes in line with their own principles.
How can we approach the problem today?
Growth of Consciousness
An interesting addendum, worth considering for our purposes, is whether it is meaningful to say that consciousness grows. I draw here particularly on C.S. Peirce, who claimed 1) that the human being is a symbol of a kind; and 2) that symbols grow. Obviously we grow physically (sometimes vertically, sometimes sideways), but this is not what Peirce meant. If we can get a handle on what we mean by the term “consciousness”, it would seem beneficial to explore this topic of its potential growth.
Questions of Consciousness
This Wednesday (07 January 2026, from 5:45-7:15+ pm ET) we invite you to join our first Philosophical Happy Hour of the year, as we take up these and related questions:
- What is consciousness? Does it differ from “awareness”? Are these (or can they be used to name) distinct phenomena?
- Is the physical experience of the human body integral to consciousness? Does consciousness “exceed” the body, and if so, how?
- Does consciousness “grow”? What would this mean? How would it happen?