Awareness is the state of being conscious of something. More specifically, it is the ability to directly know and perceive, to feel, or to be cognizant of events. Another definition describes it as a state wherein a subject is aware of some information when that information is directly available to bring to bear in the direction of a wide range of behavioral actions.[1] The concept is often synonymous to consciousness and is also understood as being consciousness itself.[2]
The states of awareness are also associated with the states of experience so that the structure represented in awareness is mirrored in the structure of experience.[1]
Awareness is a relative concept. It may be focused on an internal state, such as a visceral feeling, or on external events by way of sensory perception.[2] It is analogous to sensing something, a process distinguished from observing and perceiving (which involves a basic process of acquainting with the items we perceive).[3] Awareness or "to sense" can be described as something that occurs when the brain is activated in certain ways, such as when the color red is what is seen once the retina is stimulated by light waves.[3] This conceptualization is posited amid the difficulty in developing an analytic definition of awareness or sensory awareness.[3]
Awareness is also associated with consciousness in the sense that this concept denotes a fundamental experience such as a feeling or intuition that accompanies the experience of phenomena.[4] Specifically, this is referred to as awareness of experience. As for consciousness, it has been postulated to undergo continuously changing levels.[5]
Peripheral awareness refers to the human ability to process information at the periphery of attention, such as when we acknowledge the distant sounds of people outside while we sit indoors and concentrate on writing a report.[6][7]
Popular ideas about consciousness suggest the phenomenon describes a condition of being aware of oneself (self-awareness).[8] Modern systems theory, which offers insights into how the world works through an understanding that all systems follow system rules, approach self-awareness within its understanding of how large complex living systems work. According to Gregory Bateson, the mind is the dynamics of self-organization and that awareness is crucial in the existence of this process.[9][10] Modern systems theory maintains that humans, as living systems, have not only awareness of their environment but also self-awareness particularly with their capability for logic and curiosity.[11]