Why Am I Able To Think? - Consciousness

In the early 19th century the concept was variously considered. Some philosophers regarded it as a kind of substance, or “mental stuff,” quite different from the material substance of the physical world. Others thought of it as an attribute characterized by sensation and voluntary movement, which separated animals and men from lower forms of life and also described the difference between the normal waking state of animals and men and their condition when asleep, in a coma, or under anesthesia. Other descriptions included an analysis of consciousness as a form of relationship or act of the mind toward objects in nature, and a view that consciousness was a continuous field or stream of essentially mental “sense data,” roughly similar to the “ideas” of earlier empirical philosophers.

The method employed by most early writers in observing consciousness was introspection — looking within one’s own mind to discover the laws of its operation. The limitations of the method became apparent when it was found that because of differing preconceptions, trained observers in the laboratory often could not agree on fundamental observations.

Levels of consciousness in terms of levels of alertness or responsiveness are correlated with patterns of electrical activity of the brain recorded by an electroencephalograph. During wide-awake consciousness the pattern of brain waves consists of rapid irregular waves of low amplitude or voltage. In contrast, during sleep, when consciousness can be said to be minimal, the brain waves are much slower and of greater amplitude, often coming in periodic bursts of slow waxing and waning amplitude.

Aside from the more physical aspect and ignoring the fact of how introspection was dismissed. We still have no grip on what is consciouness. Personally, i think we could explore more of the instrospection side of things in a rather subjective manner other than objective. The various definitions of introspection are these other words that define it according to the cambridge dictionary: Thinking and contemplating, agonizing, bethink, grapple, harbour, having something in your mind, heart searching, reckon, hit on, ruminating, reweigh, ponder.

As questioned by the philosopher plato "...why should we not calmly and patiently review our own thoughts, and thoroughly examine and see what these appearances in us really are?". While introspection is applicable to many facets of philosophical thought it is perhaps best known for its role in epistemology; in this context introspection is often compared with perception, reason, memory, and testimony as a source of knowledge. In summery, what i suggest is not to search for everyone's consciousness in unisson as a general rule to find where your consciousness begins in everyone. The idea here, is to find your own consciousness, how you work, through introspection. And only then try to compare the results with others findings to have something in common on how the brain works and what constitutes a conscious mind.

But as an amatour who was just reading articles about this on internet, this might have been done already in better ways or as this is a polemic discourse, might be even be corrupted by societal standards, beliefs and such. In general, i propose us to think, to question, to feel and see things as an outsider of yourself. To stop and dedicate time to this without judgement, similar to cognitive behavioural therapy. But then to analyze of this exact thing you're doing to understand yourself. Where do you? master of your body, come from? - In a society that demands our time and the less introspection the more productive. It's easy to see how we have not yet advanced on this matter.

Anyway, take my words with a grain of salt, i'm just rambling on a bloody monday. An introspection about introspection, haha.

Still on that, We have these two videos that can explain my confusion far better than me:

You (Probably) Don't Exist

How Will We Know When AI Is Conscious

Yes, the youtube channel exurb1a is some sort of fallen god and no one can prove me otherwise.