conscius

Conscius is a term used in some strands of contemporary philosophy of mind and cognitive science to denote a proposed aspect or state of conscious experience. It is not part of the standard taxonomy of consciousness, and its meaning is not fixed; different authors use the term in varying ways.

Most common definitions describe conscius as an integrated, subjectively felt awareness that includes reflexive self-knowledge and the capacity to align perceptual content, attentional focus, and volitional action within a coherent self-model. In this sense, conscius can be thought of as a form of meta-awareness or self-representation that sits atop basic sensory processing and ongoing cognition.

Some writers reserve conscius for situations in which multiple cognitive subsystems produce a unified perspective, or in discussions of distributed or social cognition where awareness extends across agents or computational components. Others use conscius more narrowly to describe the phenomenological feel of being aware, independent of cognitive content.

Origin and status: The term appears in recent, largely non-peer-reviewed discussions and has not achieved broad consensus or formal criteria in the philosophy of mind. Because of its informal status, definitions often overlap with established concepts such as consciousness, self-awareness, metacognition, and phenomenology.

Critique and research: Critics argue that conscius risks vagueness and terminological confusion. Proponents suggest that it may help clarify distinctions between first-person experience and higher-order representations, and could guide interdisciplinary work on artificial or collective consciousness.

See also: Consciousness, self-awareness, metacognition, philosophy of mind, cognitive science, artificial consciousness, distributed cognition.