Consciousness requires a 'pre-frontal cotex" ... http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-the-prefrontal-cortex.htm why the heck that's so "special" i have no ideaops:
Haven't read the previous comments but do have an opinion. I am one of the estimated 2 percent that are unable to see minds eye visuals. Therefore no dreams that are remembered . I am however aware of "me" being different from other stuff and that other stuff happens some of which affects me.I believe this awareness is consciousness. I'm not interested enough to study my brains methods of operation. I simply do not have enough time.
Q https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology_(philosophy) Phenomenology, in Husserl's conception, is primarily concerned with the systematic reflection on and study of the structures of consciousness and the phenomena that appear in acts of consciousness. UQ Q https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consciousness Consciousness is the state or quality of awareness, or, of being aware of an external object or something within oneself. UQ
a microbe adapts to it's surrounding, is aware of it's surrounding but is not conscious? Consciousness must include SELF-awareness. Cogito ergo sum
Consciousness, imho, is a construct which needs to use other constructs like "Quality" and "Awareness" for explanation!
Q https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_everything_(philosophy) In his 1996 book The Conscious Mind,[5] David Chalmers argues that a theory of everything must explain consciousness, that consciousness does not logically supervene on the physical, and that therefore a fundamental theory in physics would not be a theory of everything. A truly final theory, he argues, needs not just physical properties and laws, but phenomenal or protophenomenal properties and psychophysical laws explaining the relationship between physical processes and conscious experience. He concludes that "[o]nce we have a fundamental theory of consciousness to accompany a fundamental theory in physics, we may truly have a theory of everything." Developing such a theory will not be straightforward, he says, but "it ought to be possible in principle." UQ
Q http://consc.net/chalmers/ My work Complete list of papers Papers on consciousness Papers on meaning and modality Papers on AI and computation Miscellaneous bits and pieces Powerpoint presentations Online discussions of my work Responses to articles on my work Resources PhilPapers: Online Research in Philosophy MindPapers: A bibliography Online papers on consciousness People with online papers in philosophy Web resources Guide to the philosophy of mind Philosophical humor http://consc.net/phil-humor.html Zombies on the web UQ Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness http://www.theassc.org/