Conciousness

There is an interesting philosophical debate that explores "consciousness" and whether or not it actually exists. According to wikipedia.org,

Consciousness has been defined loosely as a constellation of attributes of mind such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, and the ability to perceive a relationship between oneself and one's environment.

Is a conscious something an organism has? Or is a conscious just a metaphor man has developed to describe a complex set of verbal skills? By verbal skills, I mean the ability to think, use language, develop abstract concepts, etc? If you agree with the latter, then do you think that Rudolf the Rat or Polly the Pigeon are conscious? How about your cat, or your dog?

If you are interested in this topic of debate, I suggest you check out Dr. Matthew Normand's most recent podcast, "Discussing a functional approach to understanding consiousness" with Dr. Henry Schlinger. The podcast can be found here: http://www.theskinnerbox.com/CDBS/archive.html.

At times this topic has created heated debates. If we propose a behavior analytic approach to operationally identifying a conscious, we assume that it is learned and is not a separate spiritual or physical entity. I find it difficult to believe that dogs, cats, mice, pigeons, rats, or any other animal are subjected to the same contingencies that are responsible for developing a "conscious" repertoire similar to those of humans. Some organisms (like monkeys) may appear to have a conscious, but this is only because they are engaging in behavior that is similar to behavior of someone who is said to have a conscious. Just because they engage in this covert (observable) behavior, does not mean that they possess a complex verbal repertoire. This means that when your 3-month old son stares into your eye and giggles, he is not aware of his father in what we would define as a "conscious" way. Instead, he is simply reacting to immediate environmental contingencies, and it is only later when the child begins to speak when he will become "conscious".

At the least, it's worth thinking about (hehe). This is one of those things where we will probably never have a straight answer, unless we are able to completely crack the code of human behavior (stay tuned... same Bat Time, same Bat Channel).