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Single Idea 3479

[filed under theme 15. Nature of Minds / B. Features of Minds / 1. Consciousness / b. Essence of consciousness ]

Full Idea

Although we experience objects both spatially and temporally, our consciousness itself is not experienced as spatial, though it is experienced as temporally extended.

Gist of Idea

The mind experiences space, but it is not experienced as spatial

Source

John Searle (The Rediscovery of the Mind [1992], Ch. 6)

Book Ref

Searle,John R.: 'The Rediscovery of the Mind' [MIT 1999], p.127


A Reaction

This observation was made by Descartes. This seems to require that I experience objects spatially, AND experience my consciousness. Do I experience the time passing, as well as the river moving? Einstein says if it is in time, it must be in space.


The 12 ideas with the same theme [the defining aspect of being conscious]:

We can understand thinking occuring without imagination or sensation [Descartes]
Consciousness is shaped dialectically, by opposing forces and concepts [Hegel, by Aho]
Pure consciousness is a sealed off system of actual Being [Husserl]
Sartre says consciousness is just directedness towards external objects [Sartre, by Rowlands]
Consciousness always transcends itself [Sartre]
Consciousness and experience of qualities are not the same [Armstrong]
Heidegger showed that passing time is the key to consciousness [Derrida]
The mind experiences space, but it is not experienced as spatial [Searle]
An organism is conscious if and only if there is something it is like to be that organism [Nagel]
Is consciousness a type of self-awareness, or is being self-aware a way of being conscious? [Gulick]
Can we be aware but not conscious? [Chalmers]
Consciousness is a process (of neural interactions), not a location, thing, property, connectivity, or activity [Edelman/Tononi]