6533b873fe1ef96bd12d4aa1
RESEARCH PRODUCT
Early Modern Theories
Vili Lähteenmäkisubject
Unconscious thought theoryUnconscious mindmedia_common.quotation_subject05 social sciences06 humanities and the artsSpace (commercial competition)050905 science studies0603 philosophy ethics and religion16. Peace & justiceMental activityEpistemology060302 philosophyPersonal identity0509 other social sciencesConsciousnessRelation (history of concept)Psychologymedia_commondescription
The notion of consciousness was used by early modern philosophers in various ways. In dualist ontologies, the nature of thought was often characterised with the help of consciousness: while matter was understood as extended in space, thought was taken to be that which is accompanied by consciousness. Whether the mind always thinks and whether mental activity in its entirety is conscious were among the questions which addressed the relation between thought and consciousness. The possibility of unconscious thought was generally overlooked. For example, Locke rejected the Cartesian tenet that we always think by appealing to particular phenomena which suggest that we do not always think, such as dreamless sleep: we often retain no memory of having been conscious during the course of sleep. But he never considered a notion of thought that does not entail the idea of consciousness. It was Leibniz who introduced the idea of mental phenomena coming both as conscious and unconscious.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-07-28 |