Stream of Consciousness: Some Propositions and Reflections
Neuroethics April 1, 2024 Nicholas Royle
Scientific writing, even when it claims to be literal, relies on literary language and metaphor. This essay examines the concept of "stream of consciousness" through hydrological and ontic metaphors, focusing on the figure of simile ("like") as discussed in works by Thomas Nagel, Todd Feinberg and Jon Mallatt, and Anil Seth. Neuroethics must extend beyond technology and the human to deconstruct anthropocentrism, a project already begun in literary modernism. Virginia Woolf's novel "Mrs Dalloway" is presented as a literary water music where consciousness and environment blur, and where stream of consciousness becomes a telepathic fluidity of merging minds without restoring the individual or collective.