<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Consciousness is enigmatic beast. It is present with us, comforting, and intuitive core of us. Yet this familiar beast, if we try to touch and describe it, escapes. Questioning and exploring consciousness accompanies mankind since ever. In 20th century we met never before seen states of severe disorders of consciousness – nonresponding people with eyes wide open. Also advancements in general anesthesia made us reexplore this phenomena.Article sums up current philosophic and two most prominent current neuroscientific approaches to what consciousness is and how we can assess it in other human beings. These theories may extend our understanding of ourselves and also help to asses this core quality in our patients in moments, when they do not intelligibly respond or do not respond at all.</abstract>

Consciousness is enigmatic beast. It is present with us, comforting, and intuitive core of us. Yet this familiar beast, if we try to touch and describe it, escapes. Questioning and exploring consciousness accompanies mankind since ever. In 20th century we met never before seen states of severe disorders of consciousness – nonresponding people with eyes wide open. Also advancements in general anesthesia made us reexplore this phenomena.Article sums up current philosophic and two most prominent current neuroscientific approaches to what consciousness is and how we can assess it in other human beings. These theories may extend our understanding of ourselves and also help to asses this core quality in our patients in moments, when they do not intelligibly respond or do not respond at all.

The Enigma of Consciousness – Philosophic and Scientific Approach

Comenius University in Bratislava, Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin and University Hospital Martin, Clinic of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Medicine,

Acta Medica Martiniana

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"The Enigma of Consciousness \u2013 Philosophic and Scientific Approach"}

Consciousness is enigmatic beast. It is present with us, comforting, and intuitive core of us. Yet this familiar beast, if we try to touch and describe it,...

The Enigma of Consciousness – Philosophic and Scientific Approach

Published Online: Sep 24, 2016

Page range: 37 - 43

Received: Mar 18, 2016

Accepted: Jul 04, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/acm-2016-0010

Keywords
Consciousness, Theories, Integration information theory, Neuronal Correlate of Consciousness

© 2016 A Skutchanova A et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The Enigma of Consciousness – Philosophic and Scientific Approach

Published Online: Sep 24, 2016

Page range: 37 - 43

Received: Mar 18, 2016

Accepted: Jul 04, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/acm-2016-0010

KeywordsConsciousness, Theories, Integration information theory, Neuronal Correlate of Consciousness

© 2016 A Skutchanova A et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Consciousness, Theories, Integration information theory, Neuronal Correlate of Consciousness