很有趣的。就像把我们的潜意识叫做无意识一样有趣。在他的优秀著作《社会现实的建构》中，约翰·塞尔提出了他对这种简化的思考。我们可以这么说，他对那些声称我们认为事物会像魔术一样，从一种我们在功能上无能为力和失去知觉的状态中产生的观点并不感兴趣。这大致相当于认为人类像蚯蚓一样没有意识。或一块石头。或者，更有趣的是，我们是否可以说“大脑中的集体物理过程”并不存在?在这一点上我同意Searle的观点。我就是不相信。几年来，我一直在思考这种脑力上的小动作。 In coming to my own theory about it, I decided that it is every bit as possible that Freud was on the right track, though there was no way for him to prove it, nor is there any way for any of us to prove it, now---maybe even ever. I have looked at this from an 'origins' stance (and written an essay or two, as well). Primary consciousness and higher-order consciousness have been the two descriptors used by such researchers as Edelman and Tononi, et. al. In my writing, I have proposed another intermediate step which I dubbed primal consciousness---well beyond the primary, yet not as advanced as the higher-order.

在提到弗洛伊德和他的工作时，我是在赞扬他关于人类潜意识的概念。我相信这种状态可能先于认知神经科学最近所假设的前语言意识和语言意识。这再次说明了我对起源的看法，它几乎对任何事物都是必要的，对任何经历了进化变化的生命体更是如此。我们不会从无到有。至少，没有什么比意识更重要。在这一点上我支持斯特劳森的观点。那些否认意识的人是在做一个愚蠢的主张。这可能不是最愚蠢的，但这不是重点。最后，应该清楚的是，思维(甚至在早期人类祖先中)先于语言，而事情就是这样的。的起源,再次。 Children think, before they ever utter MAMA or DADA. We have to start with something, not nothing...

Follow-up on deniers and other creativeness:
Consciousness is illusion. This has been kicked around quite a bit, 'from eternity to here', and back again. If it IS only, illusory, an awful lot of thinkers have been beating a dead horse a long time. On the other hand, if it is claimed by some, as seems the case, that all living things are conscious, the brain science folks are still on the right track. What they may ultimately find remains negotiable. As is the value of such finding(s).
I sorta like a newer hypothesis: consciousness is hallucination. Perhaps newer is not completely accurate. A whole lot of people were experimenting with hallucination in the 1960s & 70s. Some still are. They use a variety of compounds to induce the desired state. So if, in the new vein, (pun, incidental) the objective is to decide which sorts of compound our bodies manufacture to generate hallucinatory consciousness, then the trail has been re-blazed. Think of it this way: if that which we loosely call consciousness or self has always been around in some state of viability or another, then, by sheer reference, so has illusion and hallucination.
概念是认识论的一部分——我们如何知道我们知道的东西。表面上看，这是相当直接的。最难的部分紧紧围绕着事实调查。法律在这方面遇到了困难。脑科学的困难就更多了，我们很难确定什么是真实的，什么是幻觉。或者，如果你更喜欢，幻觉。这一切都很有趣——其中一些，至少是可信的。就像我们的主持人一样:质疑一切。