The Concept of Consciousness 5

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 consciousness 5 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.”

Consciousness · Epistemology · Identification (biology · Linguistics · Meaning (existential · Word (group theory · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Philosophy · Philosophy and Theoretical Science · Pragmatism in Philosophy and Education · Psychology

• Problems from Locke

  J L Mackie•Problems from Locke•1976

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• Two concepts of consciousness

  Open Access•David Rosenthal, David M Rosenthal•Philosophical Studies•1986

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• Concepts of consciousness

  Open Access•B Ramamurthi•Acta Neurochirurgica•1990

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• Consciousness

  Thomas Natsoulas•American Psychologist•1978

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• The Self in Social Interaction

  Jaber F Gubrium, Chad Gordon et al.•Contemporary Sociology A Journal…•1972

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• The Concept of Consciousness 2

  Open Access•Thomas Natsoulas•Journal for the Theory of Social…•1991

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• George Herbert Mead' s Conception of Consciousness

  Open Access•Thomas Natsoulas•Journal for the Theory of Social…•1985

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• The Concept of Consciousness 1

  Open Access•Thomas Natsoulas•Journal for the Theory of Social…•1991

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• The Concept of Consciousness 3 The Awareness Meaning

  Open Access•Thomas Natsoulas•Journal for the Theory of Social…•1992

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• The Rediscovery of the Mind

  John R Searle•The rediscovery of the mind•1992

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• The principles of psychology

  James Williams, William James•The principles of psychology•1950

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• Basic problems of consciousness

  Thomas Natsoulas•Journal of Personality and Social…•1981

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