
What is consciousness? - solipsist
http://www.quora.com/What-is-consciousness?q=what+is+co
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maxharris
Consciousness is _axiomatic_. It can neither be proved nor disproved, because
all proof depends on consciousness. This is obvious on some level: you can't
prove anything to a rock, but you can prove things to other people.

(Proof is the demonstration that the non-obvious statement being proved
reduces to directly observable, and therefore self-evident, phenomena in
reality.)

Now, having said all that, it is possible and legitimate to study
consciousness. But anything that's discovered about it is only valid within
the framework outlined above, because this is one of the ideas that is
required for scientific inquiry to take place. (You can't explain scientific
ideas to rocks, or even to the best computer programs we can come up with
today.)

