Home / Archives / No. 2 (2022) / Philosophy and Science Evolutionary Approach to Consciousness in Modern Philosophy and Interdisciplinary Studies

Consciousness remains poorly defined in modern science. This review examines major philosophical and cognitive-science approaches, with special attention to the Russian activity-based tradition that situates consciousness in interaction with the world and culture. Drawing on recent anthropology and neuroscience, the authors argue that human consciousness is distinct from other forms of subjective reality found in other species. They propose defining human consciousness as the capacity to control one's actions at the level of intentions, a capacity that must be acquired during life. This definition distinguishes human consciousness from other subjective realities and suggests an evolutionary trajectory, providing a foundation for linking subjective states to neural activity.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Experiencing, awareness, and being conscious of the subjective experience are familiar to everyone and invariably bear the stamp of subjectivity. This makes the concept of consciousness one of the most problematic in modern science; insofar as there is no satisfactory definition of human consciousness that has been developed yet. This article reviews the most popular approaches to the definition of consciousness in modern philosophy and cognitive sciences. Our study continues the tradition of the Russian activity-based approach in studying consciousness, thus the greatest attention is paid to studies that consider con­sciousness in the context of interaction with the world and the culture. The au­thors consider the latest data of anthropology and neuroscience in order to find the features that distinguish human consciousness from the other forms of sub­jective reality, which are present in the other species. Based on the provided analysis, the authors propose to define human consciousness as a characteristic ability of a human to control their actions at the level of intentions, which should be mastered during the life. Therefore, it becomes possible to distinguish particular features of the human consciousness from other forms of subjective reality and to show the logic of the evolutionary development of subjective re­ality. This result can become a foundation for further research on how to iden­tify most common subjective states of human with the corresponding activity of the neural system.