What is consciousness?

           Is the study of consciousness scientific? Without a clear definition are we able to determine this?  In my opinion, yes the study of consciousness is scientific. I think the study of consciousness is scientific just because of the word “study”. In order to study something you have to have a hypothesis, then you have to observe, maybe gather data, analyze that data, and then come up with a conclusion. This sounds a lot like the scientific method. This, to me, makes it scientific.

            According to the text, many scientists don’t believe the study of consciousness is scientific. It also says “For the time being, scholars cannot even agree on what exactly the question means, much less imagine the form an answer might take.” (Beedles, 95) Just because they don’t know what the question is exactly asking, doesn’t mean they haven’t already made a hypothesis. Just taking that first step in coming up with a hypothesis makes it scientific.

            I think most, if not all aspects of consciousness are scientific. The definition of consciousness is: “an alert cognitive state in which you are aware of yourself and your situation, awareness: having knowledge of” (https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:consciousness&sa=X&ei=TyZ9TMOfA42-sAOOwNiCBw&ved=0CBYQkAE) With this being the definition I am going off of, then most parts of the study of consciousness are scientific. Being aware of yourself if not a scientific matter. I think this is more psychological then scientific. The same as being aware of your situation, I think it is more psychological then scientific. I do think, though, that being in an alert cognitive state is scientific. In order to tell if you are in an aware cognitive state, you have to run medical procedures which will tell you , in the end, if you are indeed in an aware cognitive state. This makes it a scientific procedure.

            The study of consciousness is a very difficult topic because no scholar has yet to come up with what exactly the term means. This makes it almost impossible for there to be an exact definition. Without an exact definition there is no way to conclude whether or not consciousness is in fact a scientific study. I used what I thought to be the definition of consciousness and I have concluded that yes, consciousness is a scientific study. I think then that this places me in the theoretical camp because I am going strictly off theory and nothing more.