The Oxford Dictionary defines consciousness as “the state of being awake and aware of one’s surroundings”. Consciousness is not limited however by being aware of of your external environment but it can also refer to being aware of, well, literally anything. Even if that thing isn’t observable to anyone else but you. That being your inner thoughts.
Actually, I lied.
Your inner thoughts aren’t entirely unknown to anyone else. Due to the ability to speak, write, and demonstrate literacy your thoughts can actually be heard, recorded, and observed.
Speaking
When exactly we first obtain consciousness is heavily debated. But, we know for certain that when we learn to talk, typically between 12-18 months after birth. Why am I mentioning this? Because when you gain the ability to speak you also gain a more complex method of communication. The more our bodies and brains grow, the more our needs and wants become more complex, which results in us using learned speech to express those wants and needs. Some wants and needs aren’t always something you can convey without speaking about them.
Speech can be a vocal expression of conscious thought.
Writing
When we first enter school some of the first skills we learn is the ability to write. Once we master it becomes the go-to for recording our thoughts. We write our thoughts in diaries, letters/emails, we write reports, prose, essays and more.
What makes writing such a useful expression of thought that we even use it to aid in memory. Shopping and to-do list, birth and death records preserving information long after it’s been forgotten.
Writing is the visual record of conscious thought.
Literacy
The literacy I am referring to is the ability to perform a specified task. For example being computer literate is the ability to operate a computer. By performing the task you are demonstrating what you have absorbed to be able to accomplish the task. In a way, doing something you know is a way of revealing what you know about what you are doing.
Literacy is the demonstration of what has been absorbed into our consciousness or what we have learned.
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