Consciousness seems to pervade all mentality because it is not conscious of what it isn’t conscious of
Consciousness is a much smaller part of our mental life than we are conscious of, because we cannot be conscious of what we are not conscious of. It is like asking a flashlight in a dark room to search around for something that does not have any light shining upon it. The flashlight, since there is light in whatever direction it turns, would have to conclude that there is light everywhere. And so consciousness can seem to pervade all mentality when actually it does not.
References
- Jaynes, Julian. (1976). The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind Chapter 1 The Consciousness of Consciousness (Epub p. 28). New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company.
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