What am I?

[LiamOS]

In another thread, The Mad Haranguer appeared to be alluding towards the idea that consciousness is immaterial.

In this thread, if you feel that matter is incapable of supporting consciousness at our level, please explain why, and explain.

Questions for debate:
-Can consciousness be defined? If so, how? If not, why?
-Does Evolutionary biology support the idea that consciousness evolved?

Feel free to openly discuss any miscellaneous aspects of consciousness, too.

[Icarus Fallen]

ATP,

I can't imagine consciousness being an aspect of matter in its simplest stages. <...> 'Emergent property' is an appropriate description, in my opinion.

My leeriness in regard to a given phrase is normally subject to change, as the fog surrounding the use of the term begins to lift ...and the vagueness dissipates.

A couple of questions, purely in the interest of fog removal:

1) An 'emergent property' is a "property" of what (I.E. to what does it belong)?

2) Does ownership of any aspect (however innate) of the property in question ...necessarily precede the 'emergence' (and subsequent ownership?) of the property proper?

[LiamOS]

An emergent property is a property that emerges from a system at a certain stage of complexity/development, I guess. I don't quite know what you mean by 'belonging'.

I'm not sure exactly what the second question is asking.

[ApprenticeAndMaster]

"Consciousness" may well be an "immaterial" result of diversely behaving aspects at the material level.

Put another way: there's no principle (physical, logical, or otherwise) that precludes immaterial outcomes from the pool of prospective outcomes of material interaction.

I would call consciousness an emergent property of the biochemical actions of the brain.

Injure the brain, modify the consciousness

I think this is a very accurate synopsis. You can especially appreciate the significance of the observation that injuring the brain modifies consciousness. In cases with the insane we can observe that people can be under a delusion simply from chemical dysfunction in the brain, though they are unaware that they are insane.

This perhaps explains the incomprehensible issue of explaining consciousness. We innately believe that we are conscious and free willed though our mind is simply a mechanism constructed of matter and energy and affected by matter and energy. Consciousness seems magical really.. in that as simple humans we can look and think and feel. We have egos, we relate and analyze. Life is a picture to us and we comprehend it in the way our mind lets us.

I am still confounded by the concept of consciousness. I can't comprehend how it is, if you understand what I mean by this. Although I can say this much for sure; the dualistic mind is credulous.