Teadvuse

Teadvuse, in Estonian often translated as consciousness, refers to the state or quality of being aware of oneself and the surrounding environment, and of having thoughts, perceptions, and experiences. The term covers both philosophical questions about subjective experience and empirical investigations in psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive science.

Two broad distinctions are common in discussions of teadvuse. Phenomenal consciousness describes the subjective feel of experiences—what it is like to see a color, feel a warm touch, or have a mood. Access consciousness refers to information that is available for reasoning, speech, and deliberate control of behavior. Consciousness also varies along levels, from wakefulness to altered states such as sleep, dreaming, anesthesia, or coma.

In neuroscience, researchers seek neural correlates of consciousness, or the brain activity that accompanies conscious experience. The thalamocortical system and widespread cortical networks are often highlighted, with theoretical frameworks such as Global Workspace Theory and Integrated Information Theory offering different explanations for how conscious content is broadcast and integrated across brain regions.

Philosophical debates focus on enduring puzzles like the hard problem of why and how subjective experience arises, versus the more tractable “easy problems” of explaining cognitive functions. Methodologically, scientists rely on behavioral tasks, neuroimaging, and electrophysiology to infer the presence and contents of consciousness, while acknowledging the limits of indirect measurement.

Practical study of teadvuse intersects with clinical medicine and ethics, including disorders of consciousness, anesthesia, and the assessment of patient awareness. It also informs discussions about artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the potential for non-biological systems to exhibit forms of conscious processing.