Consciousness and Unconsciousness

A detailed Summary of Consciousness and Unconsciousness

Descartes using the method of doubt, tries to create a firm foundation for new sciences. This method should be based on something that is not susceptible to doubt. When Descartes applies the method of doubt, he doubts everything that are derived from senses. Descartes adopted the strategy of withholding his belief from anything that was not entirely certain and in dubitable. He decides that he cannot be deceived about his own existence, because if he did not exist, he would not be around to worry about it. If he did not exist, he would not be thinking; so if he is thinking, he must exist. This is the Cogito ergo sum, "I think therefore I am." Thinking comes first, and for Descartes that is a real priority. "The mind is better known than the body", and the cogito ergo sum makes Descartes believe, not just that he has proven his existence as a thinking substance, a mind, leaving the body as some foreign thing to worry about later. Descartes takes "I" as his first principle and thus "I think" is qualitatively different from our physical body. Thinking causes awareness and when we think we are conscious. Consciousness is very complete in itself for Descartes and it is unbroken, has no g

In conclusion, as Descartes is trying to reach his first principle as "I think, I exist" with certainty, changes his method and says thinking makes me conscious. Challenging Freud points out that id, ego and superego with interactions of consciousness and unconsciousness, "I" cannot be a first principle for consciousness. Ego is made of id (nature) and superego (culture) and no one can shape oneself without them. According to Freud the gaps of consciousness are a result of these interactions. "Self" cannot be separated from nature or culture as Freud points out but Descartes takes "self" as his basic principle of consciousness and unconsciousness.

The essentials of Freud's model of mind can be restated in terms of a model of consciousness. The distinction between the conscious and unconscious, as Freud uses these terms, can be reformulated in terms of the concepts object of attention and subsidiary awareness. Freud's investigations into internal conflicts such as this led him to an eventual division of the mind into three parts, three conflicting internal tendencies, id, ego and super-ego. The id, the ego and the superego function in different levels of consciousness indeed, Freud's theory of the mind hinges upon the ability of impulses or memories to float from one level to another. The id demands immediate gratification: it is ruled by the pleasure principle, demanding satisfaction now, regardless of circumstances and possible undesirable effects. The eventual understanding that immediate gratification is usually impossible comes with the form

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Approximate Word count = 1055
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History