Consciousness facts for kids

Consciousness means being awake, alert and responsive to the environment. The definition of consciousness may differ in psychology, neuroscience, philosophy and other related sciences. It is often disputed amongst academics and scientists.

Consciousness is a spectrum. There are several states between a fully conscious state and a fully unconscious state. In medicine, the degree of loss of consciousness is measured by using Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS); a score between 3 and 15 is given to each person at any time, to show how conscious he or she is. Higher scores show more conscious states.

It seems that many decisions are made without us being aware of it. These decisions are made by what is called the unconscious mind. There are also many body functions which we do not notice until they go wrong. These activities are done by the autonomic nervous system. Breathing and the beat of one's heart can be noticed but are controlled by nervous system without thought.

It is not known what causes consciousness. So, it is difficult to know if another person or thing is indeed conscious. The best we can say is that some animals do seem to be conscious of the world around them. We ourselves assume that others have consciousness, but it cannot be proved. This is known in philosophy as the problem of other minds.

Images for kids

• 

  Representation of consciousnes from the seventeenth century by Robert Fludd, an English Paracelsian physician

• 

  John Locke, British Enlightenment philosopher from the 17th century

• 

  Illustration of dualism by René Descartes. Inputs are passed by the sensory organs to the pineal gland and from there to the immaterial spirit.

• 

  Thomas Nagel argues that while a human might be able to imagine what it is like to be a bat by taking "the bat's point of view", it would still be impossible "to know what it is like for a bat to be a bat." (Townsend's big-eared bat pictured).

• 

  John Searle in December 2005

• 

  Schema of the neural processes underlying consciousness, from Christof Koch

See also

In Spanish: Conciencia (filosofía) para niños