Question: where does the conscious awareness of sound begin

title: Consciousness
text: A related word was conscientia , which primarily means moral conscience . In the literal sense , `` conscientia '' means knowledge - with , that is , shared knowledge . The word first appears in Latin juridical texts by writers such as Cicero . Here , conscientia is the knowledge that a witness has of the deed of someone else . René Descartes ( 1596 -- 1650 ) is generally taken to be the first philosopher to use conscientia in a way that does not fit this traditional meaning . Descartes used conscientia the way modern speakers would use `` conscience '' . In Search after Truth ( Regulæ ad directionem ingenii ut et inquisitio veritatis per lumen naturale , Amsterdam 1701 ) he says `` conscience or internal testimony '' ( conscientiâ , vel interno testimonio ) .