English · Early modern philosophy; later psychology and neuroscience

consciousness

Heard as KON-shuss-ness

Period
seventeenth century philosophical sense onward
Semantic range
Psychological awareness, inner sense, later phenomenal experience, access, self-consciousness.
What it can mean
In Cudworth, inner awareness with grades. In Locke, perception of what passes in one's own mind, later bound to personal identity.
What it should not be equated with
Not invented by Cudworth as a phenomenon. Not a clean replacement for conscience. Not a universal translation of xin, citta, or nafs.
Primary or early source
Cudworth 1678; Locke 1690 and 1694; later James.
Scholarly source
SEP seventeenth-century theories; Weinberg; Thiel.
Relation to other terms
The modern gathering word. This project studies how it gathered.