Consciousness, Stream of
Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science January 15, 2006 DOI: 10.1002/0470018860.s00299 (opens in new tab)
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractConsciousness, according to William James, is a continuous stream made of brief, adjacent states that occur one at a time, except when it stops and restarts. At any given moment, a person's conscious mental life consists of a single, integrated state with many intrinsic features, and there is no evidence of a second simultaneous stream.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Argues that consciousness, per James, is a single stream of tightly adjacent states occurring one at a time, with each state possessing many intrinsic features. |
Abstract
Abstract Except for time‐gaps, when the stream comes to a stop and then starts again, a stream of consciousness is constituted, from the Jamesian perspective, of tightly adjacent states of consciousness occurring very briefly one at a time. Unless a second such stream flows in the individual simultaneously, his or her conscious mental life at any instant consists entirely of one integral state of consciousness that typically possesses many intrinsic features.