section_path: Problem of definition/From introspection to awareness
section_name: From introspection to awareness
paragraph_text: From introspection to awareness
  
  Prior to the 20th century, philosophers treated the phenomenon of consciousness as the "inner world one's own mind", and introspection was the mind "attending to" itself, an activity seemingly distinct from that of perceiving the 'outer world' and its physical phenomena. In 1892 William James noted the distinction along with doubts about the inward character of the mind:
  
  'Things' have been doubted, but thoughts and feelings have never been doubted. The outer world, but never the inner world, has been denied. Everyone assumes that we have direct introspective acquaintance with our thinking activity as such, with our consciousness as something inward and contrasted with the outer objects which it knows. Yet I must confess that for my part I cannot feel sure of this conclusion. It seems as if consciousness as an inner activity were rather a postulate than a sensibly given fact...
  
  By the 1960s, for many philosophers and psychologists who talked about consciousness, the word no longer meant the 'inner world' but an indefinite, large category called awareness, as in the following example:
  
  It is difficult for modern Western man to grasp that the Greeks really had no concept of consciousness in that they did not class together phenomena as varied as problem solving, remembering, imagining, perceiving, feeling pain, dreaming, and acting on the grounds that all these are manifestations of being aware or being conscious.
  
  Many philosophers and scientists have been unhappy about the difficulty of producing a definition that does not involve circularity or fuzziness. In The Macmillan Dictionary of Psychology (1989 edition), Stuart Sutherland emphasized external awareness, and expressed a skeptical attitude more than a definition:
  
  Consciousness —The having of perceptions, thoughts, and feelings; awareness. The term is impossible to define except in terms that are unintelligible without a grasp of what consciousness means. Many fall into the trap of equating consciousness with self-consciousness —to be conscious it is only necessary to be aware of the external world. Consciousness is a fascinating but elusive phenomenon: it is impossible to specify what it is, what it does, or why it has evolved. Nothing worth reading has been written on it.
  
  Using 'awareness', however, as a definition or synonym of consciousness is not a simple matter:
  
  If awareness of the environment... is the criterion of consciousness, then even the protozoans are conscious. If awareness of awareness is required, then it is doubtful whether the great apes and human infants are conscious.