Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Schrodinger, "On Mind and Matter" (1958)
Any succession of events in which we take part with sensations, perceptions and possibly with actions gradually drops out of the domain of consciousness when the same string of events repeats itself in the same way very often. But it is immediately shot up into the conscious region, if at such a repetition either the occasion or the environmental conditions met with on its pursuit differ from what they were on all the previous incidences. Even so, at first anyhow, only those modifications or 'differentials' intrude into the conscious sphere that distinguish the new incidence from previous ones and thereby usually call for 'new considerations'...
I would summarize my general hypothesis thus: consciousness is associated with the learning of the living substance; its knowing how is unconscious"
Any succession of events in which we take part with sensations, perceptions and possibly with actions gradually drops out of the domain of consciousness when the same string of events repeats itself in the same way very often. But it is immediately shot up into the conscious region, if at such a repetition either the occasion or the environmental conditions met with on its pursuit differ from what they were on all the previous incidences. Even so, at first anyhow, only those modifications or 'differentials' intrude into the conscious sphere that distinguish the new incidence from previous ones and thereby usually call for 'new considerations'...
I would summarize my general hypothesis thus: consciousness is associated with the learning of the living substance; its knowing how is unconscious"
# posted by Notetaker @ 8:38 AM 
