Hello qpet,
My research showed that depending on who is doing the defining, there
is a difference between the two terms, or they refer to the same idea.
I found that the words are often used interchangeably (as synonyms) in
discussions and general dictionary definitions. Following is a
selection of some quotes that I have taken out of some pages that I
found in my searches, most of them are worth reading through the
entire article to gain a greater understanding.
"Consciousness and awareness are the same thing; they're just
synonyms.
And states are only "mental" if they occur inside creatures that have
conscious states."
Source: "Explaining, Mind96: Re: Consciousness"
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Explaining.Mind96/0163.html
Many people equate consciousness with awareness. Knowledge or
awareness has to be clearly distinguished from consciousness. The
acquisition of knowledge through the perception of the senses or the
inference of the intellect is possible only because of the existence
of consciousness.
Source: "Understanding Consciousness"
http://www.emergentmind.org/Discussion/_disc/00000011.htm
I found a website with a religious discussion of the difference
between the two terms:
"Baba's meaning of consciousness seems to refer to the action of the
soul by which the soul imagines, perceives, or comprehends. This
consciousness is complete, Baba tells us, in the human form but it is
fettered and limited by the accumulation of endless ego-impressions,
gathered over a period of innumerable births and deaths. Awareness, in
Baba's special meaning, would be the breaking or wearing down of these
fetters and bindings on consciousness. Thus; awareness could be
thought of as the Expansion of Consciousness. Baba wants us to become
more aware; really, awareness is a gift from Him."
Source: "The Significance of Awareness, Part 2 of 4"
http://www.avatarmeherbaba.org/erics/awareness2.html
"In awareness, you can see around you; you are aware of another
person, of the room, of how you are standing, of how you are sitting
or of how you are talking. But consciousness is far deeper and
broader. When there is consciousness, there need not be a subject and
object. Consciousness merely exists. In it the individual merges and
becomes one with the universal Reality. There is no separation of
individuality, for the One is infused with all that exists.
Consciousness is not a personal quality, but an all-embracing cosmic
identity."
Source: "What Is The Difference Between Consciousness..."
http://www.srichinmoylibrary.com/significance-smile/34
"While awareness and consciousness are pretty much the same thing,
awareness and self-awareness are very different capabilities: A dog
can be aware of its surrounding, this does not make it able to be
self-aware (an amoeba may be aware of its surrounding too as Hameroff
thought!). The capability of reflecting on the self appears to be the
characteristic of humans, and becomes a "degree or mode" of
consciousness only when this capability is there, "built in the
system" in the first place."
Source: "Consciousness"
http://rgouin.home.mindspring.com/consciousness.html
"We shall emphasize the difference between awareness and
consciousness. Awareness is an individual phenomenon. Consciousness is
determined by the social relations. Consciousness is woven in humans
around awareness, between the two existing some zones of mutual
interaction."
Source: "Chapter 7 ** The Awareness Experiment"
http://www.racai.ro/books/doe/chap7.html
tisme-ga
Search Strategy:
differences consciousness awareness
://www.google.com/search?q=differences+consciousness+awareness
difference "consciousness and awareness"
://www.google.com/search?q=difference+%22consciousness+and+awareness%22
consciousness awareness
://www.google.com/search?q=consciousness+awareness |
