Exploring Consciousness: Old Habits and New Horizons 57discussion of “Consciousness and the Sleeping Brain” (p. 86). He defines
consciousness as “a person’s subjective awareness of his inner thinking
and feeling as well as his immediate surroundings” (p. 86). “What is
consciousness and what underlies it?” writes Griggs (2017, p. 86), are “the
most intriguing questions” “left for neuroscientists to answer about the
brain and its many functions.” This example clearly illustrates the
dichotomy between studying consciousness itself—which he adequately
defines in terms of subjective experience—versus studying the biological
mechanisms that support consciousness via an objective lens.
For Coon and Mitterer (2015), whose textbook offers concise
“Modules for Active Learning,” “Consciousness consists of your
sensations and perceptions of external events as well as your self-
awareness of mental events, including thoughts, memories, and feelings
about your experiences and yourself” (pp. 186-187). Speaking candidly to
their readers, the authors acknowledge that their descriptive definition is
“based on your own subjective, first-person experience” and, in doing so,
give a nod to the hard problem of consciousness—specifically, “what it
feels like to be you” versus what it feels like to be someone else (p. 186).
Despite their promising start, the authors fail to explore the quandary
further, yielding instead to the prevailing forces within scientific
psychology and concluding that “psychologists adopt an objective, third-
person point of view” on account of “the difficulty of knowing other
minds.” “A key challenge of psychology,” they suggest, “is to use
objective studies of the brain and behavior to help us understand the mind
and consciousness” (p. 187). While the authors are not off base in their
remarks, by quickly pivoting away from the hard problem in favor of the
easy ones, they avoid broaching the issue of subjectivity any further,
deeming it an impossible endeavor and therefore, unworthy of
psychological inquiry.
Of the textbooks reviewed, Cacioppo and Freberg (2016) do the most
thorough job of defining the various nuances surrounding the term
‘consciousness.’ Despite devoting little more than two pages to this
endeavor, they begin by stating that “Consciousness refers to knowing or
being aware of ongoing experiences occurring both internally and in the