Concept
Awareness
Overview
Awareness refers to the knowledge or perception of something, a concept widely discussed in psychology and philosophy. As such, it is the ability to consciously perceive, understand, and respond both generally to one's surroundings and specifically to individual stimuli. The concept is often synonymous with consciousness; however, one can be aware of something without being explicitly conscious of it (e.g., blindsight). Essentially, awareness is the state of being attuned to, or mindful of something, whether it is a physical sensation or an idea. The states of awareness are also associated with the states of experience, so that the structure represented in awareness is mirrored in the structure of experience.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Awareness is discussed.
There are two senses in which the terminus of sense-awareness is unique. It is unique for the sense-awareness of an individual mind and it is unique for the sense-awareness of all minds which are operating under natural conditions. There is an important distinction between the two cases.
Alfred North Whitehead, The Concept of Nature The Tarner Lectures Delivered in Trinity College, November 1919
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
The awarenesses we have considered so far have all been awarenesses of particular existents, and might all in a large sense be called sense-data. For, from the point of view of theory of knowledge, introspective knowledge is exactly on a level with knowledge derived from sight or hearing.
Bertrand Russell, Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
If, on the other hand, we clearly recognise the nature of that peculiar relation which I have called "awareness of anything"; if we see that _this_ is involved equally in the analysis of _every_ experience--from the merest sensation to the most developed perception or reflexion, and that _this_ is in fact the only essential element in an experience--the only thing that is both common and peculiar to all…
G. E. Moore, Philosophical Studies
states what it is; names the idea; opens on it
Take, as important kinds, perception, memory, conception, and beliefs involving concepts. Perception is the ordinary awareness of sensible objects: seeing a table, hearing a piano, and so on. Memory is awareness of a past occurrence, when this awareness is direct, not inferred or derived from testimony. Conception is more difficult to characterise.
Bertrand Russell, Philosophy
states what it is; names the idea
The paradox of the same experience figuring in two consciousnesses seems thus no paradox at all. To be 'conscious' means not simply to be, but to be reported, known, to have awareness of one's being added to that being; and this is just what happens when the appropriative experience supervenes. The pen-experience in its original immediacy is not aware of itself, it simply _is_, and the second experience is required…
William James, Essays in Radical Empiricism
states what it is; names the idea
Philosophers who discussed Awareness
Related ideas
- Cognition
- Philosophy
- Mind
- Neuroscience
- Qualia
- Psychology
- Sense
- Knowledge
- Perception
- Science
- Self-organization
- Experience
- Brain injury
- Brain
- Self-awareness
- Logic
- Sweden
- Consciousness
- Attention
- Concept
- Francisco Varela
- Humberto Maturana
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Absurdism.