Abstract
A general definition of consciousness that accommodates most views (Vimal, 2010b) is: “
‘consciousness is a mental aspect of a system or a process, which is a conscious experience, a
conscious function, or both depending on the context and particular bias (e.g. metaphysical
assumptions)’, where experiences can be conscious experiences and/or non-conscious experiences
and functions can be conscious functions and/or non-conscious functions that include qualities of
objects. These are a posteriori definitions because they are based on observations and the
categorization.” Non-conscious experiences are equivalent to relevant proto-experiences and nonconscious functions are equivalent to related proto-functions at various levels as these terms are
precursors of respective conscious subjective experiences and conscious functions aspect of
consciousness. The non-conscious experiences and non-conscious functions may be considered as a
part of the definition of mind and/or awareness.