The Paradigms of Consciousness: A Discourse

Abstract

Consciousness is deep in meaning and utilised in many different ways. It is often used to scientifically explain one’s ability to discriminate stimuli, report information, monitor internal states or control behaviour. This paper investigates the concepts and paradigms of consciousness from scientific, Western and religious perspectives with focus on Islamic dimensions as a discourse. A library research is conducted and online resources are utilised to review literatures from multi-disciplines before arriving at a conclusion. Discursive paradigms of consciousness recognise it as an abstract concept. Consciousness is beyond cognition. While cognitive thoughts, theories and ideologies relate consciousness to the five senses of humans, the concepts of ‘will’, awareness (i.e. being aware of things happening around a human being) and having a sense of purpose or intent in undertaking actions are relevant in the study of consciousness. A conscious person will use his/her senses to conduct life as civilised beings. However, by linking the body and the soul in explaining consciousness from Islamic viewpoints, consciousness is the awareness of oneself driven by his/her commitment and conviction as a servant of God and total submission to the Creator. Consciousness from Islamic contexts indeed relates to iman (faith) and taqwa (God consciousness).