CHALLENGES AND CONTROVERSIES ABOUT CONSCIOUSNESS

Abstract

Approaching consciousness is not a simple task, because we would be facing ourselves, looking at our image reflected in a mirror, trying to unravel secrets of our existence, without this mirror being able to reveal an essential part of who we are and that remains in the shadows. The two highlights above show how disconcerting the issue of conscience is: for Sutherland, we we are faced with its inexhaustible content, despite everything that has already been reflected on it and that we certainly need to continue reflecting. For Edelman, it is like a kind of application, in current language, that we turn off when we are in deep sleep and that we activate so that we can use it at every moment of our daily journey. In the articles that make up this issue, we see the challenge of overcoming the 'little is known' while facing the '(un)comfortable position'. The two movements lead us to the search for that mirror that, in this continuous and unrestrained reflection, can be translated into a Scientific Theory of Consciousness (PEREIRA Jr., in this volume). We need this mirror to see ourselves; we want to look into a mirror that sheds some light on the shadows that hang over our existence and consciousness is still this rather dark territory that requires light.