con·scious·ness   (kŏn'shəs-nĭs)    n.   The state or condition of being conscious. A sense of one's personal or collective identity, including the attitudes, beliefs, and sensitivities held by or considered characteristic of an individual or group: Love of freedom runs deep in the national consciousness. Special awareness or sensitivity: class consciousness; race consciousness. Alertness to or concern for a particular issue or situation: a movement aimed at raising the general public's consciousness of social injustice. In psychoanalysis, the conscious.

Consciousness

Con"scious*ness\, n. 1. The state of being conscious; knowledge of one's own existence, condition, sensations, mental operations, acts, etc.

Consciousness is thus, on the one hand, the recognition by the mind or "ego" of its acts and affections; -- in other words, the self-affirmation that certain modifications are known by me, and that these modifications are mine. --Sir W. Hamilton.

2. Immediate knowledge or perception of the presence of any object, state, or sensation. See the Note under Attention.

Annihilate the consciousness of the object, you annihilate the consciousness of the operation. --Sir W. Hamilton.

And, when the steam Which overflowed the soul had passed away, A consciousness remained that it had left. . . . images and precious thoughts That shall not die, and can not be destroyed. --Wordsworth.

The consciousness of wrong brought with it the consciousness of weakness. --Froude.

3. Feeling, persuasion, or expectation; esp., inward sense of guilt or innocence. [R.]

An honest mind is not in the power of a dishonest: to break its peace there must be some guilt or consciousness. --Pope.

Main Entry: con·scious·ness
Pronunciation: 'kän-ch&-sn&s
Function: noun
1 : the totality in psychology of sensations,perceptions, ideas, attitudes, and feelings of which an individual or a group is aware at any given time or within a given time span consciousness, such as sleep, dreamingand hypnosis —Bob Gaines>
2 : waking life (as that to which one returns after sleep, trance, or fever) in which one's normal mental powers are present consciousness>
3 : the upper part of mental life of which the person is aware as contrasted with unconscious processes

consciousness con·scious·ness (kŏn'shəs-nĭs)
n.

1. The state or condition of being conscious.
2. A sense of one's personal or collective identity, especially the complex of attitudes, beliefs, and sensitivities held by or considered characteristic of an individual or a group.
3. In psychoanalysis, the conscious.