William James, the “Unthought Known,” and Aesthetic Experience
Cambridge University Press eBooks February 19, 2026 Randall Knoper
James insisted on the existence and importance of consciousness and, unlike so many explorers in the new field of psychology, he resisted any idea of the unconscious or of intelligent automatisms, like “unconscious cerebration.” But his “stream of consciousness” included not only definite images, but also the “free water of consciousness” that flows around them, which he would call a “halo,”...