Which scientific field comes closest to being able to understand what sentience is?

Question

Can biology, physics, or anything come close to explaining how a self-aware consciousness is created?

Answer 1

Probably psychology, neuro-psychology, or psychobiology.

Neuro-psychology and psychobiology study how the body (and brain) and the "mind" interact.

A good example of this is provided in the book 1985 "The The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and Other Clinical Tales", by neurologist Oliver Sacks

Answer 2

Physics can, especially particle--- and astrophysics.  Everything that is has its origin in the minuscule undulations at the singularity, the Big-Bang.  Everything, including all life and consciousness, is a direct function of energy, light speed variance, phase-transitions, matter, gravity and entropy. The evolution of consciousness itself is a direct result of quantum mechanical effects.

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

July 2008

The Self-Organising QUANTUM UNIVERSE

page 42

A Brief History of Quantum Gravity

("....  Any object ... classical or quantum ... is in a certain state ....  ... the state of a classical object can be described by a unique set of numbers, the state of a quantum object is far richer.  It is the sum, or "superposition," of all possible classical states.  ....  The smaller the size of a physical system ... the more important the quantum fluctuations become.

Euclidean quantum gravity applies the superposition principle to the entire universe.  ... superposition consists ... of ...different ways the entire universe could evolve in time ....")   [there are an infinite number of ways the universe, and everything in the universe could evolve over time.]

Unless you are a physicits, this probably doesn't mean much to you.  Classical physics deals with the large scale matter in the universe; quantum mechanics deals with the forces that operate at the atomic and subatomic level. Two very different worlds, each claiming to describe our realm.

Superposition is the basis of the theory of multi-universes, timelines, and perhaps consciousness itself.  It says, basically, that everytime that we make conscious decision or take a action based upon a conscious decision, we force a collapse of an infinite alternative timeline possibilities in order to make just one possibility a reality.  It is consciousness which makes that happen.  It is this decision to act and the choosing of one possibility which collapse an infinite number of other alternatives, that is self-generating. It is likely that the act of decision making (no matter how large or small the decision) creates consciousness---the source of dreams is probably along the same lines of thought.

It's a difficult concept to get a grip on, but once you do you'll begin to see that everything is indeed a function of energy, speed of light, matter, gravity, and entropy along with phase-transitions; which has its roots in the singularity.

Answer 3

To the person above me, Christianity is against most ideas of  science (as far as I know) so I would say no to that >.>

To the real question, no field has really come close to explaining it, although there is animal behavior, which is part of biology. But personally I think biology would be closest seeing as how it deals with both the scientific aspects and the physical aspects of life (did that make any sense?).

Answer 4

No, I don't think any of the sciences can explain how a self-aware consciousness is created,  I would say English, Anthropology, Zoology, or Xenobiology (if we had that science yet) would understand the meaning.  Xenobiology, I believe is still science fiction or a future science, being the science of alien beings.

Answer 5

Is Christianity a scientific field?