The Inner Consciousness

THE INNER CONSCIOUSNESS

inference—there is a middle distance of subconsciousness, and a background of unconsciousness."

And Sir William Hamilton Sir William Hamilton (1788–1856) was a Scottish philosopher who studied the limits of human knowledge and the existence of mental states below the level of awareness. states: "I do not hesitate to assert that what we are conscious of is constructed out of what we are not conscious of—that our whole knowledge, in fact, is made up of the unknown and the incognizable incognizable: that which cannot be known or understood by the senses or the intellect. The sphere of our consciousness is only a small circle in the center of a far wider sphere of action and passion, of which we are only conscious through its effects."

And Taine Hippolyte Taine (1828–1893) was a prominent French critic and historian who sought to apply scientific and biological methods to the study of the human mind. has said in connection with the same thought: "Mental events that are imperceptible to consciousness are far more numerous than others. Of the world which makes up our being, we only perceive the highest points—the sunlit peaks of a continent whose lower levels remain in the shade. Beneath ordinary sensations are their components—that is to say, the elementary sensations—which must be combined into groups to reach our consciousness. Outside a little luminous circle lies a great, large ring of twilight, and beyond this an indefinite night; but the events of this twilight and this night are as real as those within the luminous circle."

To this, Maudsley Henry Maudsley (1835–1918) was a pioneering British psychiatrist who argued that many mental processes are physical and occur without our conscious awareness. adds his testimony, as follows: "Examine closely and without bias the ordinary mental operations of life, and you will surely discover that consciousness does not play even one-tenth part of the role in them that it is commonly assumed to have. In..."