The word consciousness has different meanings to people. Michael Graziano argues that the three major perspectives on – spiritual, hard problem, and self-model represent a progression in our understanding, with only framework able account for subjective experience.

I Consciousness has a number of puzzling features. One such feature is its unity: the experiences and other conscious states that one has at a particular time seem to occur together in a certain way. I am currently enjoying visual experiences of my computer screen, auditory experiences of bird-song, olfactory experiences of coffee, and tactile experiences of feeling the ground beneath my feet. ...

the early 1990s, most scientists considered consciousness taboo, but now many consider it the most important unsolved problem in science. Consciousness is also a key issue in the ongoing dialogue between science and religion. The dominant view of consciousness in the hard sciences is of course materialist and reductionist. This has had important successes, but it also has important unresolved p...

Functionalists about consciousness identify consciousness with a role; physicalists identify consciousness with an implementer of that role. The global workspace theory of consciousness ®ts the functionalist perspective, but the physicalist sees consciousness as a biological phenomenon that implements global accessibility. q 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights