Defining Consciousness

When
I say science completely leaves out consciousness in its description of
reality, people frequently ask what my definition of consciousness is.



But what do they mean by "definition of consciousness"? They must mean either:



a) What do I mean by the word "consciousness".



or




b) What is the scientific definition of consciousness? i.e how does
consciousness fit into our scientific description of reality.



But
regarding "a", obviously we all know what consciousness means. It's
all our thoughts, feelings, perceptions etc. So, given that the person
is conscious, he knows what consciousness refers to. So presumably he
is not requesting this (and it's always a he).



So he must be
asking for a scientific definition of consciousness. But science
completely leaves out consciousness in its description of reality, as I
said in the beginning!

This is the type of futile "conversation" I have with people on the net.