Stream of Consciousness: Some Propositions and Reflections

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.

Study at a glance

Abstract

AbstractThis short communication explores the idea of “stream of consciousness” and considers some of the ways in which scientific writing relies – even or perhaps especially insofar as it does not signal this fact – on the resources of literary language and literary thinking. Particular attention is given to notions of literal and figurative or metaphorical language, including “hydrological” and “ontic” metaphor. A crucial figure is simile (the “like”), discussed here in relation to the Thomas Nagel’s “What is it Like to Be a Bat?”, Todd Feinberg and Jon Mallatt’s Consciousness Demystified, and Anil Seth’s Being You: A New Science of Consciousness. Neuroethics cannot restrict itself to the domain of technology and the human. The deconstruction of anthropocentrism, already underway in literary modernism, calls for responsibility in relation to non-human as well as human life-forms. Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway provides rich and multifarious resources for exploring these issues. Woolf’s novel is considered as a kind of literary water music, in which sense and feeling is not limited to the human, and distinctions between consciousness and the environment are susceptible to dissolution. Woolf’s work is concerned with a conception of stream of consciousness as telepathic fluidity, as “merging minds” but without restitution of the individual or collective.