Origins of Consciousness by Julian Jaynes
Book 1: The Mind of Man
Chapter 1: The Consciousness of Consciousness
In this article, analytical and structured approaches to consciousness are quite detail and make me think about consciousness more in different angles.
A pen and writing example(p21) reminds me of the level of abstraction similar to spoon and rice or chopsticks and noodle. We don't think angle, power, speed and others of spoon or chopsticks except when we learned how to use them. In addition to the abstraction, it somewhat sounds like we lost our sensitivity in some aspects. Therefore, I may think about a device or system to listen our body or mind we used to listen before. It sounds that we lost our sensitivity in some aspects. In addition, we sometimes should throw our consciousness away because consciousness actually reduces our earning abilities(p32).
While thinking of a flash light instance(p22), I was trying to find something shining in the dark that we usually don't or can't see but exist and can be recognized. I'm always interested in a sleep. We all have identity before and after a sleep, and it seems they are same one.
identity (sleep) identity
----------------------> time
However, when I see my writings of long time ago I sometimes feel that another identity wrote them. A different between a single night of sleep is small, but between identities of long gap could be large.
While I already know or can understand the concept of consciousness author points out, I doubt about speaking process(p39) that we are not aware of each single word but whole meaning of sentences. Is it also true in second language? I'm a native in Korean and Japanese, I think I do so in these languages, but not in English or Chinese especially I'm not in a very easy everyday life conversation. Or, do I need to change myself to use English in this way?
The author explains several several stages of creative thought(p43): 1. consciously worked over -> 2. incubation without conscious -> 3. illumination which is later justified by logic. How about apply dream? 1. think something before sleep -> 2. sleep (process without conscious) 3. illumination (dream) -> 4. justified by logic after get up before lose the memory of what you dream. In my experiences, the latest step is the most important since we usually forget our dream.
I'd like to research about conversation between consciousness and subconsciousness in related to a sleep. I believe when we know more about it, then we can use it for many usages.
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