The concept of consciousness: The unitive meaning

Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 24 (4):401-24 (1994)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This is the fifth of a series of six articles examining respectively the six concepts of consciousness identified in the main entries of the Oxford English Dictionary under the word. I call the concept of consciousness5 the unitive meaning because it is said to refer to the totality of mental-occurrence instances that constitute a person's conscious being. The present article consists mainly of an effort to answer the question of which totality of mental-occurrence instances it is to which the fifth concept refers. Four possible answers are considered, and the fourth, derived form Locke, is found to capture best the dictionary's meaning. Accordingly, consciousness5 is a certain subjectively determined unity of mental-occurrence instances mat is further specified, of course, in the article. However, I also consider, finally, that the compilers of the dictionary may have had something more objective in mind as well, another meaning toward which the word is tending if it has not already arrived mere. This further sense may amount to an identification of consciousness with those components of James's stream that he described as “the very core and nucleus of our self as we know it, the very sanctuary of our life.”

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,221

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

The concept of consciousness5: The unitive meaning.Thomas Natsoulas - 1994 - Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 24 (4):401–424.
The concept of consciousness: The reflective meaning.Thomas Natsoulas - 1994 - Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 24 (4):373-400.
The concept of consciousness: The general state meaning.Thomas Natsoulas - 1999 - Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 29 (1):59-87.
The concept of consciousness4 the reflective meaning.Thomas Natsoulas - 1994 - Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 24 (4):373–400.
Consciousness: Varieties of intrinsic theory.Thomas Natsoulas - 1993 - Journal of Mind and Behavior 14 (2):107-32.
The concept of consciousness: The awareness meaning.Thomas Natsoulas - 1992 - Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 22 (2):199-225.
The concept of consciousness: The awareness meaning.Thomas Natsoulas - 1992 - Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 2 (2):199-25.
The concept of consciousness: The personal meaning.Thomas Natsoulas - 1991 - Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 21 (September):339-67.
The concept of consciousness: The interpersonal meaning.Thomas Natsoulas - 1991 - Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 21 (September):63-89.
Tertiary consciousness.Thomas Natsoulas - 1998 - Journal of Mind and Behavior 19 (2):141-176.
The concept of consciousness: The personal meaning.Thomas Natsoulas - 1991 - Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour (September) 339 (September):339-367.
The sciousness hypothesis: Part I.Thomas Natsoulas - 1996 - Journal of Mind and Behavior 17 (1):45-66.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
11 (#971,375)

6 months
1 (#1,027,696)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

The Principles of Psychology.William James - 1890 - London, England: Dover Publications.
A Materialist Theory of the Mind.D. M. Armstrong - 1968 - New York: Routledge. Edited by Ted Honderich.
Two concepts of consciousness.David M. Rosenthal - 1986 - Philosophical Studies 49 (May):329-59.
Problems from Locke.J. L. Mackie - 1976 - Oxford [Eng.]: Clarendon Press.
Pedagogy of the Oppressed.Paulo Freire - 1970 - New York: Bloomsbury Academic. Edited by Myra Bergman Ramos, Donaldo P. Macedo & Ira Shor.

View all 12 references / Add more references