The Study of Consciousness Is Mired in Complexities and Difficulties: Can They Be Resolved?

This paper explores several etymological, semantic, sociolinguistic, and methodological issues that have, in my opinion, impeded the progress of consciousness research and discourse; and I offer some suggestions that are hopefully worthy of consideration. I review the historical and extant conflation of terms in the literature, a litany of published definitions and types of consciousness, and call for greater “semantic lucidity”. I critique the rationale underpinning the search for the neural correlates of consciousness, advocate for greater adherence to the requirements of an operational definition in research, and discuss the paradigm of consciousness as a ‘process’ versus the premise of consciousness as a tangible ‘thing’ that can somehow be found in a particular locus within the material substrate of the nervous system.