more from this thinker     |     more from this text


Single Idea 21833

[filed under theme 15. Nature of Minds / B. Features of Minds / 2. Unconscious Mind ]

Full Idea

The emerging consensus is that we probably overrate the power of conscious experience in our lives. Freud, of course, said the same thing for different reasons.

Gist of Idea

Research suggest that we overrate conscious experience

Source

Owen Flanagan (The Really Hard Problem [2007], 3 'Ontology')

Book Ref

Flanagan,Owen: 'The Really Hard Problem' [MIT 2007], p.90


A Reaction

[He cites Pockett, Banks and Gallagher 2006]. Freud was concerned with big deep secrets, but the modern view concerns ordinary decisions and perceptions. An important idea, which should incline us all to become Nietzscheans.


The 18 ideas with the same theme [workings of mind hidden from consciousness]:

The movement of Soul is continuous, but we are only aware of the parts of it that are sensed [Plotinus]
I can't be unaware of anything which is in me [Descartes]
La Rochefoucauld's idea of disguised self-love implies an unconscious mind [Rochefoucauld, by Sartre]
If we aren't aware that an idea is innate, the concept of innate is meaningless; if we do, all ideas seem innate [Locke]
It is a serious mistake to think that we are aware of all of our perceptions [Leibniz]
The soul doesn't understand many of its own actions, if perceptions are confused and desires buried [Leibniz]
Half our thinking is unconscious, and we reach conclusions while unaware of premises [Schopenhauer]
We have hidden and unadmitted desires and fears, suppressed because of vanity [Schopenhauer]
Most of our lives, even the important parts, take place outside of consciousness [Nietzsche]
Whatever moves into consciousness becomes thereby much more superficial [Nietzsche]
Freud treats the unconscious as intentional and hence mental [Freud, by Searle]
Since we are a consciousness, Sartre entirely rejected the unconscious mind [Sartre, by Daigle]
Unconscious thoughts are those capable of causing conscious ones [Searle]
Consciousness results directly from brain processes, not from some intermediary like information [Searle]
If all mental life were conscious, we would be unable to see things, or to process speech [McGinn]
How come unconscious states also cause behaviour? [Lockwood]
Could there be unconscious beliefs and desires? [Lockwood]
Research suggest that we overrate conscious experience [Flanagan]