Existential and functional dependence of consciousness on brain activity, on the body within its surroundings and evolutionary perspective are two fundamental theoretical "touchstones" of the paper. Consciousness is characterized as a quality and capacity of a living organism varying in degrees and types through evolution, fylogeny and ontogeny. Conscious creature is aware of its body and self, it represents the "inner" and "outer" worlds in the form of images, thoughts, feelings, beliefs etc. Evidence for both theses is taken from empirical (...) research on brain-consciousness-behaviour lesions, paleoarcheology, comparative anatomy and morfology, embryology etc. Author considers the coevolutionary research strategy, based on mutual cooperation between humanities and science, of great importance in studying and explaining consciousness, Paper argues towards the possibility of an objective systematic theory of consciousness. (shrink)

The Feeling Brain — The Thinking Soul Recent advances in neuroscience have dramatically improved our understanding of human emotional states. With the help of new technologies and models, scholars are beginning to unravel the "mystery" of emotional life. Confusions in contemporary emotion studies are due to the traditional model of a person as a rational conscious agent. The paper highlights two problematic aspects of this prevailing model: the relation between emotion and reason and the relation between emotion and consciousness. Firstly, (...) it is claimed that the difference between emotions and thoughts does not transcend their mutual interconnectivity. Secondly, conscious content and emotional responses are both products of specialized emotion systems that operate unconsciously. Both claims are supported by experimental findings and clinical practice. (shrink)