The structure of self-consciousness

a fourteenth-century debate

Mikko Yrjönsuuri

pp. 141-152

in: Sara Heinämaa, Vili Lähteenmäki, Pauliina Remes (eds), Consciousness: from perception to reflection in the history of philosophy, Berlin, Springer, 2007

Abstract

Augustine tells, in the eighth chapter of his De trinitate XI (PL, c. 996), that he often notices after reading a page or a chapter that he does not remember at all what he has read. He has to read the text again. According to Augustine's explanation of the phenomenon, if one is not interested, the text does not reach one's memory. The eyes are reading, but the mind does not follow the thoughts read.

Cited authors

Augustinus Aurelius