Consciousness: between Psychopathy and Schizophrenia

Abstract

The question of the function of consciousness is a part of “the hard problem of consciousnes” and focuses attention on the hypothetical role of phenomenal data, that is, on determining the moment of actualization of consciousness. Cur­rently, there are no generally accepted ideas about the role that consciousness plays in human life. The questions about the evolutionary cause of the appearance of consciousness and the spread of consciousness among objects of the world other than humans are debatable. At the same time, insufficient attention is paid to the analysis of various degrees of realization of the function of consciousness in the theory of consciousness. It is possible that the hypothetical function of conscious­ness can be realized in different ways in people. Such a statement of the question makes it possible to make adjustments to the methodology of searching for physio­logical correlates of conscious actions; to look at the problem of non-human pos­sessors of consciousness under different optics; to enter the new fields of ethical discussions. The article substantiates the potential of the consciousness research in this direction on the example of imagination as a hypothetical function of con­sciousness.