Single Idea 6164

[catalogued under 18. Thought / C. Content / 1. Content]

Full Idea

Sartre's attack on the idea that consciousness has contents is an attack on the idea that the mental possesses features that are hidden, inner and constituted or revealed by the individual's inwardly directed awareness.

Gist of Idea

Sartre rejects mental content, and the idea that the mind has hidden inner features

Source

report of Jean-Paul Sartre (Being and Nothingness [1943]) by Mark Rowlands - Externalism Ch.5

Book Reference

Rowlands,Mark: 'Externalism' [Acumen 2003], p.76


A Reaction

This is part of the move towards 'externalism' about the mind. The notion of 'content' implies a container. It seems slightly ridiculous, though, to try to say that the mind just 'is the world'. How is reasoning possible, and the relation of ideas?