Awareness and unity of conscious experience

Buridan on the common sense

Henrik Lagerlund

pp. 149-156

in: Gyula Klíma (ed), Questions on the soul by John Buridan and others, Berlin, Springer, 2017

Abstract

Lagerlund's chapter deals with the issue of the integration of sensations into conscious experience by the inner sense, the so-called common sense. The chapter focuses specifically on two of the most important functions ascribed to the common sense since the time of Aristotle: (i) its ability to make us aware of what we are sensing; and (ii) its ability to sort out what we are sensing and distinguish it from other things. After noting how these two functions are related to modern discussions about consciousness and binding, the chapter uses a type of argument that Kant called "the Achilles of rationalist psychology" to argue for Buridan's dualism between the soul and the body, both in humans and in brute animals.

Cited authors

Kant Immanuel

Aristoteles

Buridan Jean