Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human MindMill, James
PhilosophyPhilosophy
Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind
Mill, James
Psychology
our early infancy between every one of our feelings and our
remembrance of the entire series of feelings of which it forms a
part, and consequently between every one of our feelings and our
Self. A slight correction, therefore, seems requisite to the
doctrine of the author laid down in the present chapter. There is a
mental process, over and above the mere having a feeling, to which
the word Consciousness is sometimes, and it can hardly be said
improperly, applied, viz. the reference of the feeling to our Self.
But this process, though separable in thought from the actual
feeling, and in all probability not accompanying it in the
beginning, is, from a very early period of our existence,
inseparably attendant on it, though, like many other mental
processes, it often takes place too rapidly to be remembered at the
next instant.
Other thinkers, or perhaps the same thinkers on other occasions,
employ the word Consciousness as almost a synonyme of Attention. We
all know that we have a power, partly voluntary, though often acting
independently of our will, of _attending_ (as it is called) to a
particular sensation or thought. The essence of Attention is that
the sensation or thought is, as it were, magnified, or strengthened:
it becomes more intense as a whole, and at the same time more
distinct and definite in its various parts, like a visible object
when a stronger light is thrown upon it: while all other sensations
or thoughts which do or which might present themselves at the same
moment are blunted and dimmed, or altogether excluded. This
heightening of the feeling we may call, if we please, heightening
the consciousness of the feeling; and it may be said that we are
made more conscious of the feeling than we were before: but the
expression is scarcely correct, for we are not more conscious of the
feeling, but are conscious of more feeling.
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