Abstract

Is consciousness a discipline of Philosophy/Theology or Science? Since time immemorial, consciousness
has baffled us, bewildered us and sometimes even mystified us. The question still remains that can
consciousness be really studied as a rigorous scientific discipline? It is indeed true that the study of
consciousness has been now open to various scientific disciplines mostly within the last twenty to thirty
years. This has been the case because of the rise of disciplines like neurobiology, cognitive science and
even evolutionary biology. Rigorous scientific disciplines have now started considering studies relating to
consciousness as not only important but rather imperative towards understanding the brain-mind
relationship.
In this research paper, I have outlined the main scientific theories that, in my view are studying
consciousness rigorously. The first broad scientific discipline that studies consciousness is that of
cognitive science and within the broad discipline of cognitive science the main theories are namely, Global
Workspace Theory by Bernard Baars, Multiple Drafts Model by Daniel Dennett, Intermediate Level
Theory by Ray Jackendoff and finally Information Integration Theory by GuilioTononi and Gerald
Edelman. The second broad discipline that studies consciousness scientifically is that of Neurobiology
and within the discipline of neurobiology, the main theory would that be of finding the neural correlate of
consciousness as proposed by Christof Koch and Francis Crick. The third discipline would also include
that of evolutionary biology and within that discipline the most recent work is that of Antonio Damasio
and more specifically his book titled Self Comes to Mind.