📌 Key Definitions
- Consciousness: the ability to know what we think, feel, or do. It is being aware of oneself, capable of reflection.
- Unconscious: everything that escapes consciousness but still influences our thoughts, desires, and actions. It can be psychological (Freud), social, or biological.
🔍 Central Problem
Are we truly in control of ourselves?
Or does a hidden part of us act without our awareness?
🧩 Key Distinctions
Immediate awareness: Direct perception of oneself and the world (e.g., “I’m hungry”)
Reflective consciousness: Ability to think about oneself, to analyze one’s states
Freudian unconscious: Repressed content: desires, memories, unconscious impulses
Cognitive unconscious: Automatic mechanisms of the brain (e.g., habits, reflexes)
Collective Unconscious (Jung): Archetypes common to all humanity
📚 Key Philosophers and Quotations
➤ Descartes – Discourse on Method
- 📌 “I think, therefore I am.”
➡️ Existence is based on thinking and being aware. Man is a thinking being.
➤ Freud – The Unconscious
- 📌 “The ego is not master in its own house.”
➡️ Our conscious self is influenced—and sometimes dominated—by unconscious forces.
➤ Nietzsche – The Gay Science
- 📌 “A thought comes when ‘it’ wills, not when ‘I’ will.”
➡️ Our thoughts are not always chosen consciously: they arise within us.
➤ Sartre – Being and Nothingness
- 📌 He criticizes the idea of a Freudian unconscious: “The conscious cannot not know.”
➡️ For Sartre, we are fully responsible for our actions—even internal conflicts are part of our conscious choices.
⚖️ Sample Essay Questions
- Can we truly know ourselves?
- Are we still free if the unconscious determines us?
- Does the unconscious undermine personal responsibility?
- Is consciousness enough to explain our behavior?
✅ Key Takeaways
- Consciousness allows thought, freedom, and moral responsibility.
- The unconscious (Freud) shows that we are not entirely self-aware.
- There are different kinds of unconscious: psychic, cognitive, biological, social.
- Modern philosophy debates between:
➤ Humans are conscious, free, and responsible.
➤ Humans are influenced by unconscious forces beyond their control.