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Single Idea 2964

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

Full Idea

Anyone who thinks phenomenal qualities are inseparable from our awareness of them, must think subconscious mental states are totally devoid of phenomenal qualities! So how can these states cause behaviour in the way conscious states do?

Gist of Idea

How come unconscious states also cause behaviour?

Source

Michael Lockwood (Mind, Brain and the Quantum [1989], p.166)

Book Ref

Lockwood,Michael: 'Mind,Brain and the Quantum:The Compound 'I'' [Blackwell 1991], p.166

A Reaction

I agree with this thought, though it is beautifully unprovable. We would need to respond to a red traffic light, without having consciously registered its presence. It is is just increasingly clear that we register information pre-consciously.

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

21827 The movement of Soul is continuous, but we are only aware of the parts of it that are sensed [Plotinus]
16634 I can't be unaware of anything which is in me [Descartes]
7118 La Rochefoucauld's idea of disguised self-love implies an unconscious mind [Rochefoucauld, by Sartre]
2603 If we aren't aware that an idea is innate, the concept of innate is meaningless; if we do, all ideas seem innate [Locke]
12944 It is a serious mistake to think that we are aware of all of our perceptions [Leibniz]
19355 The soul doesn't understand many of its own actions, if perceptions are confused and desires buried [Leibniz]
21478 Half our thinking is unconscious, and we reach conclusions while unaware of premises [Schopenhauer]
21369 We have hidden and unadmitted desires and fears, suppressed because of vanity [Schopenhauer]
20116 Most of our lives, even the important parts, take place outside of consciousness [Nietzsche]
20120 Whatever moves into consciousness becomes thereby much more superficial [Nietzsche]
3488 Freud treats the unconscious as intentional and hence mental [Freud, by Searle]
22226 Since we are a consciousness, Sartre entirely rejected the unconscious mind [Sartre, by Daigle]
3486 Unconscious thoughts are those capable of causing conscious ones [Searle]
3503 Consciousness results directly from brain processes, not from some intermediary like information [Searle]
4691 If all mental life were conscious, we would be unable to see things, or to process speech [McGinn]
2964 How come unconscious states also cause behaviour? [Lockwood]
2951 Could there be unconscious beliefs and desires? [Lockwood]
21833 Research suggest that we overrate conscious experience [Flanagan]