About Consciousness

Abstract

I run a blog entitled “Conscious Entities” at http://consciousentities.com which is devoted to short discussions of some of the major thinkers and theories about consciousness. This paper is a small collection of my writings on consciousness which the editor of JCER very kindly selected to appear here. The first section illustrates the wide range of different ways in which people have defined consciousness. The second section sets out my personal diagnosis of the problem - which in fact I have called ‘3½ Problems’ – those of qualia, intentionality, moral responsibility, and relevance (with relevance and intentionality overlapping a bit, hence the ½). The third section sets out my answers which, perhaps disappointingly, is called ‘1½ Answers’. The last section briefly introduces my blog Conscious Entities.