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Single Idea 7111
[filed under theme 15. Nature of Minds / B. Features of Minds / 1. Consciousness / f. Higher-order thought
]
Full Idea
The existence of consciousness is an absolute, because consciousness is consciousness of itself; the type of existence that consciousness has is that it is consciousness of itself.
Gist of Idea
Consciousness exists as consciousness of itself
Source
Jean-Paul Sartre (Transcendence of the Ego [1937], I (A))
Book Ref
Sartre,Jean-Paul: 'The Transcendence of the Ego' [Routledge 2004], p.7
A Reaction
I find this unconvincing. Anyone analysis the nature of the mind should think as much about animal minds as human minds. It seems obvious to me that there is likely to be an animal consciousness which is entirely of environment and its body.
The
57 ideas
from Jean-Paul Sartre
22232
|
Authenticity is taking responsibility for a situation, with all its risks and emotions
[Sartre]
|
20760
|
Sincerity is not authenticity, because it only commits to one particular identity
[Sartre, by Aho]
|
22228
|
Sartre's freedom is not for whimsical action, but taking responsibility for our own values
[Sartre, by Daigle]
|
22227
|
For Sartre there is only being for-itself, or being in-itself (which is beyond experience)
[Sartre, by Daigle]
|
6151
|
Sartre says consciousness is just directedness towards external objects
[Sartre, by Rowlands]
|
6164
|
Sartre rejects mental content, and the idea that the mind has hidden inner features
[Sartre, by Rowlands]
|
7074
|
Man is a useless passion
[Sartre]
|
20743
|
Appearances do not hide the essence; appearances are the essence
[Sartre]
|
22233
|
Love is the demand to be loved
[Sartre]
|
6687
|
Man is the desire to be God
[Sartre]
|
20755
|
Fear concerns the world, but 'anguish' comes from confronting my self
[Sartre]
|
22231
|
We flee from the anguish of freedom by seeing ourselves objectively, as determined
[Sartre]
|
21240
|
The truth about events always comes from the oppressed and disadvantaged
[Sartre, by Bakewell]
|
6868
|
'Existence precedes essence' means we have no pre-existing self, but create it through existence
[Sartre, by Le Poidevin]
|
3842
|
Existence before essence (or begin with the subjective)
[Sartre]
|
3844
|
Existentialism says man is whatever he makes of himself
[Sartre]
|
3843
|
There is no human nature
[Sartre]
|
20764
|
In becoming what we want to be we create what we think man ought to be
[Sartre]
|
20762
|
There are no values to justify us, and no excuses
[Sartre]
|
20754
|
It is dishonest to offer passions as an excuse
[Sartre]
|
20763
|
When my personal freedom becomes involved, I must want freedom for everyone else
[Sartre]
|
3845
|
Without God there is no intelligibility or value
[Sartre]
|
3846
|
Man IS freedom
[Sartre]
|
22229
|
Existentialists says that cowards and heroes make themselves
[Sartre]
|
6571
|
When a man must choose between his mother and the Resistance, no theory can help
[Sartre, by Fogelin]
|
3847
|
Man is nothing else but the sum of his actions
[Sartre]
|
3848
|
Cowards are responsible for their cowardice
[Sartre]
|
3851
|
If I do not choose, that is still a choice
[Sartre]
|
3852
|
If values depend on us, freedom is the foundation of all values
[Sartre]
|
20491
|
States have a monopoly of legitimate violence
[Sartre, by Wolff,J]
|
24016
|
Consciousness always transcends itself
[Sartre]
|
24013
|
An emotion and its object form a unity, so emotion is a mode of apprehension
[Sartre]
|
24017
|
Emotion is one of our modes of understanding our Being-in-the-World
[Sartre]
|
24014
|
Emotions are a sort of bodily incantation which brings a magic to the world
[Sartre]
|
24015
|
Emotions makes us believe in and live in a new world
[Sartre]
|
22226
|
Since we are a consciousness, Sartre entirely rejected the unconscious mind
[Sartre, by Daigle]
|
7106
|
The Ego is not formally or materially part of consciousness, but is outside in the world
[Sartre]
|
7125
|
A consciousness can conceive of no other consciousness than itself
[Sartre]
|
7107
|
Intentionality defines, transcends and unites consciousness
[Sartre]
|
7109
|
If you think of '2+2=4' as the content of thought, the self must be united transcendentally
[Sartre]
|
7111
|
Consciousness exists as consciousness of itself
[Sartre]
|
7108
|
The eternal truth of 2+2=4 is what gives unity to the mind which regularly thinks it
[Sartre]
|
7110
|
If the 'I' is transcendental, it unnecessarily splits consciousness in two
[Sartre]
|
7115
|
Maybe it is the act of reflection that brings 'me' into existence
[Sartre]
|
7116
|
When we are unreflective (as when chasing a tram) there is no 'I'
[Sartre]
|
7117
|
How could two I's, the reflective and the reflected, communicate with each other?
[Sartre]
|
7113
|
Phenomenology assumes that all consciousness is of something
[Sartre]
|
7114
|
The consciousness that says 'I think' is not the consciousness that thinks
[Sartre]
|
7112
|
The Cogito depends on a second-order experience, of being conscious of consciousness
[Sartre]
|
7119
|
Is the Cogito reporting an immediate experience of doubting, or the whole enterprise of doubting?
[Sartre]
|
7124
|
The Ego never appears except when we are not looking for it
[Sartre]
|
7122
|
We can never, even in principle, grasp other minds, because the Ego is self-conceiving
[Sartre]
|
7123
|
Knowing yourself requires an exterior viewpoint, which is necessarily false
[Sartre]
|
7120
|
It is theoretically possible that the Ego consists entirely of false memories
[Sartre]
|
7121
|
The Ego only appears to reflection, so it is cut off from the World
[Sartre]
|
22225
|
My ego is more intimate to me, but not more certain than other egos
[Sartre]
|
22230
|
Sartre gradually realised that freedom is curtailed by the weight of situation
[Sartre, by Daigle]
|