Consciousness
“You can certainly research consciousness, but you should definitely have a permanent position first” – this saying is circulating among neuroscientists. Because although this professional group is probably best placed to know what consciousness is, even they have difficulty defining it.
Philosophers – the classic explorers of consciousness – seek refuge in diversity. Neurophilosopher Thomas Metzinger from the University of Mainz, for example, unfolds five different meanings of the word in the entry “Consciousness” in the “Encyclopedia of Philosophy”. Only the layman believes he knows what consciousness is. And that there are many ways to be without consciousness: in sleep, for example, in a coma, under anesthesia. And in death.
However, apart from death, there are some interesting intermediate stages. Lucid dreams, for example, in which the sleeper knows that they are dreaming. Or people who appear to be in a persistent vegetative state, but whose brain scans reveal that they can even solve logical puzzles.
Such paradoxical states are very helpful to neuroscientists in their efforts to trace consciousness in all its philosophical diversity in the laboratory. To this end, neuroscientists, psychologists, and philosophers are increasingly working together. And not all of those conducting research in this field have permanent positions!
