Consciousness and the brain

Abstract

Following the advice of I.P. Pavlov to the effect that "it is important to understand psychologically before translating a phenomenon into physiological language", the author defines more precisely the content and origin of consciousness as a phenomenon of human higher nervous activity. The necessity of distinguishing two fundamentally different phenomena in the sphere of unconscious mental activity, defined as subconsciousness and superconsciousness, is substantiated. The emotional languages of superconsciousness are described, namely, the senses of beauty, humor, and conscience. The contradictory nature of objectively determined behavior along with subjectively experienced freedom of choice are regarded from the points of view of their initial supplementarity. It is asserted that the activity of superconsciousness, recombining previously accumulated experience, underlies the so-called self-determination of behavior, as a result of which decision options may arise that have never been encountered previously. In other words: the freedom that is maximally available to man is manifested in his creative activity.