Consciousness

In the 17th century, the French philosopher and mathematician, Rene Descartes, asked, AIs the mind, or consciousness, independent of matter? Is consciousness extended (physical) or unextended (nonphysical)? Is consciousness determinative, or is it determined (p. 1)?@

English philosophers such as John Locke thought of consciousness as being associated with physical sensations which provided information.

In 1876, Wilhelm Max Wundt, a German psychologist studied the structure of consciousness. He included feelings, images, memory, attention, duration and movement within his theory. He focused on a central methodology which was introspection. His subjects reported on their own consciousness.

At Cornell University, Edward Bradford Titchener, an American psychologist, developed the introspective approach. Introspective self-reports helped to detail his structure of the mind from which he developed a structuralism approach to consciousness. For example, Ataste was >dimensionalized= into four basic categories: sweet, sour, salt and bitter (p.2).@

By the 1920's consciousness was removed from psychological research for 50 years when behaviorism captured the field of psychology.

By the late 1950's the subject of consciousness returned. A

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anzee, who has had a mirror in her quarters for several months. Daniel Povinelli tested her self awareness by a method developed by Gordon Gallup which will be discussed further below. Briefly, Megan was anesthetized and while unconscious a bright red ink was dabbed on her forehead. When she woke up she saw herself in the mirror and scratched at the spot where the ink was. ATheory of mind@ is a term used to describe that there is an awareness that others have minds as well. The example given is that a human is aware that they are not the only conscious being in the world and the assumption is that others are conscious and they are taken into account when dealing with others. An example of a gorilla having >theory of mind= took place in 1996 when Binti Jua, a western lowland gorilla in Illinois= Brookfield Zoo, rescued a three year old boy who fell into her enclosure. She took the boy into her arms in the same way she was holding her own baby, and laid the boy in front of the door at her enclosure so that her keepers could help him. The witnesses said they could tell that Binti=s actions her well thought out. AYou could definitely see her making decisions. You could see her look up and concentrate. She didn=t hesitate t
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Approximate Word count = 1593
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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