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We first distinguish various different logical structures of the term "consciousness" that are being employed, such as the type of predicate and the class of referents.
=== Unary predicate of organism organisms ===
Often, the term "consciousness" is being used as a unary predicate, i.e. it is a predicate that takes one "variable". This variable often describes organisms, persons, subjects or the like.
''Example:'' Consciousness in this sense could refer to whether a person is in a state of wakefulness, capable of processing and reacting to stimuli.
=== Unary predicate of mental state states ===
=== Binary predicate of organism organisms ===
The term "conscious" is also being used as a binary predicate, i.e. a predicate which takes two "variables". In one way of using the term, one of the variables refers to persons or organisms, and the other refers to objects of perception or thinking. ''Example:'' A person is conscious of a red tomato. This connotation of consciousness includes both pre-conceptual [[attention]] of external objects or states of one's body, as well as conceptually structured consciousness of objects (e.g. in a description).<ref name="MetzingerLexikon" /> It is an ''intentional'' notion of consciousness, as according to this notion, consciousness is always about something. === Binary predicate of mental state states ===
= Meanings of the term consciousness =
