Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 30
“Can a conscious entity do anything for itself that an unconscious”
"The Evolution of Consciousness," Consciousness and Emotion in Cognitive Science: Conceptual and Empirical Issues (1998) ed. Josefa Toribio & Andy Clark
Context: We now understand how very complex and even apparently intelligent phenomena, such as genetic coding, the immune system, and low-level visual processing, can be accomplished without a trace of consciousness. But this seems to uncover an enormous puzzle of just what, if anything, consciousness is for. Can a conscious entity do anything for itself that an unconscious (but cleverly wired up) simulation of that entity couldn't do for itself?
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Daniel Dennett 86
American philosopher 1942Related quotes
“Be a mere assistant to your unconscious. Do only half the work. The rest will do itself.”
Jean Cocteau
(1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker
Diary of an Unknown (1988)
Source: Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933), p. 69
Context: The great decisions of human life have as a rule far more to do with the instincts and other mysterious unconscious factors than with conscious will and well-meaning reasonableness. The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases. Each of us carries his own life-form—an indeterminable form which cannot be superseded by any other.
Eric R. Kandel
(1929) American neuropsychiatrist
The Age of Insight (2012)
Context: The Copernican revolution... revealed that the earth is not the center of the universe... The second, the Darwinian revolution... revealed that we are not created divinely or uniquely but instead evolved from simpler animals by a process of natural selection. The third great revolution, the Freudian revolution of Vienna 1900, revealed that we do not consciously control our own actions but are instead driven by unconscious motives. This... later led to the idea that human creativity... stems from conscious access to underlying, unconscious forces.
David L. Norton
(1930–1995) American philosopher
Imagination, Understanding, and the Virtue of Liberality, ch. 4
Hariprasad Chaurasia
(1938) Indian bansuri player
Music is a Prayer:An interview with Hariprasad Chaurasia by Ian Gottstein
Thomas Merton
(1915–1968) Priest and author
Letter to Dorothy Day, quoted in Catholic Voices in a World on Fire (2005) by Stephen Hand, p. 180.
Context: Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody's business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy if anything can.
