work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
6673,Stream of Consciousness,Reading,2010-02-04 17:29:29 UTC,"What sort of knowledge can be secured of the workings of a mind? On the one side, according to the official theory, a person has direct knowledge of the best imaginable kind of the workings of his own mind. Mental states and processes are (or are normally) conscious states and processes, and the consciousness which irradiates them can engender no illusions and leaves the door open for no doubts. A person's present thinkings, feelings and willings, his perceivings, rememberings and imaginings are intrinsically 'phospherescent'; their existence and their nature are inevitably betrayed to their owner. The inner life is a stream of consciousness of such a sort that it would be absurd to suggest that the mind whose life is that stream might be unaware of what is passing down it.
(pp. 13-4)",,17696,"","""The inner life is a stream of consciousness of such a sort that it would be absurd to suggest that the mind whose life is that stream might be unaware of what is passing down it.""","",2010-02-04 17:29:29 UTC,I. Descartes' Myth
6673,Stream of Consciousness,Reading,2010-02-04 17:36:30 UTC,"True, the evidence adduced recently by Freud seems to show that there exist channels tributary to this stream, which run hidden from their owner. People are actuated by impulses the existence of which they vigorously disavow; some of their thoughts differ from the thoughts which they acknowledge; and some of the actions which they think they will to perform they do not really will. They are thoroughly gulled by some of their own hypocrisies and they successfully ignore facts about their mental lives which on the official theory ought to be patent to them. Holders of the official theory tend, however, to maintain that anyhow in normal circumstances a person must be directly and authentically seized of the present state and workings of his own mind.
(p. 14)",,17697,"","""True, the evidence adduced recently by Freud seems to show that there exist channels tributary to this stream, which run hidden from their owner.""","",2010-02-04 17:36:30 UTC,I. Descartes' Myth
7190,"",Reading,2012-02-22 20:22:46 UTC,"First let us consider the epicentre. On its own this trigger, as we can see from the earlier definition, is not going to generate consciousness. Imagine a candyfloss machine with a stick in the centre that then gathers more and more candyfloss as time goes on. Think of the epicentre as the stick in the centre, the burgeoning candyfloss being analogous to the recruitment of the cells. The stick in itself is not the candyfloss, it is just the trigger for it, just as the stone does not contain the ripples but causes their generation. What in the brain could mediate this epicentre, this trigger? Another rather simplistic analogy might be a boss, at the centre of a big organization that is eventually going to recruit managers and submanagers. What in the brain could be the equivalent of the boss? The most obvious candidate, and one that might immediately spring to mind, is the basic component of the brain, the neuron, or brain cell. [...]
(pp. 112-3)",,19592,"","""On its own this trigger, as we can see from the earlier definition, is not going to generate consciousness. Imagine a candyfloss machine with a stick in the centre that then gathers more and more candyfloss as time goes on. Think of the epicentre as the stick in the centre, the burgeoning candyfloss being analogous to the recruitment of the cells. The stick in itself is not the candyfloss, it is just the trigger for it, just as the stone does not contain the ripples but causes their generation.""","",2012-02-22 20:22:46 UTC,""
7190,"",Reading,2012-02-22 20:36:30 UTC,"[...] Perhaps the consciousness of dreaming is the almost random formation of little groups forming in different configurations like pebbles thrown very gently into the water. One can imagine the gentle ripples easily being displaced by the next pebble as it hits the water. I would like to suggest that the dreaming consciousness is not qualitatively different from ordinary consciousness--rather it is just an extreme example of one that quantitatively can be placed at the far end of the spectrum. [...]
(p. 119)",,19594,"","""Perhaps the consciousness of dreaming is the almost random formation of little groups forming in different configurations like pebbles thrown very gently into the water. One can imagine the gentle ripples easily being displaced by the next pebble as it hits the water.""","",2012-02-22 20:36:30 UTC,""
6673,"",Reading,2013-04-27 16:51:41 UTC,"It is naturally difficult, if one denies the existence of the second theatre, to elucidate what is meant by describing the episodes which are supposed to take place in it as self-intimating. But some points are clear enough. It is not supposed that when I am wondering, say, what is the answer to a puzzle and am ipso facto consciously doing so, that I am synchronously performing two acts of attention, one to the puzzle and the other to my wondering about it. Nor, to generalise this point, is it supposed that my act of wondering and its self-intimation to me are two distinct acts or processes indis- solubly welded together. Rather, to relapse perforce into simile, it is supposed that mental processes are phosphorescent, like tropical sea-water, which makes itself visible by the light which it itself emits. Or, to use another simile, mental processes are 'overheard' by the mind whose processes they are, somewhat as a speaker overhears the words he is himself uttering.
(pp. 158-9)",,20152,"","""Rather, to relapse perforce into simile, it is supposed that mental processes are phosphorescent, like tropical sea-water, which makes itself visible by the light which it itself emits.""","",2013-04-27 16:51:41 UTC,Chapter VI. Self-Knowledge