Abstract
The word “unconscious” (from the Late Latin inconscius, composed from the prefix in- plus the adjective conscius) denotes, in a broader sense, that which is not conscious: more precisely, the set of those psychic or mental processes that escape consciousness or of which the subject is not aware. It can be used as both an adjective and a noun, but the second use appears only at the end of the nineteenth century, when the word “unconscious” begins to refer to a reality underlying consciousness or devoid of consciousness (see section Consciousness). As such, the realm of the unconscious will receive particular importance at the beginning of the twentieth century with the arrival of psychoanalysis, which will propose undertaking a systematic study of it.
The aim of this entry is to uncover some of the philosophical conceptions of the unconscious which preceded and were left aside by the emergence of the psychoanalytical model. In particular, we will focus on the idea of the unconscious that was first introduced by the German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) (see section Leibniz). We will see how, within the context of Leibniz’s philosophy, the problem of the unconscious appears not so much as part of an abstract theory of knowledge as part of a theory of perception (see section Aesthetics). After summarizing the context of the philosophical debate that led Leibniz to introduce his theory of “small perceptions,” this entry will show its possible implications for a general philosophy of the unconscious and its legacy in later thinkers.
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Aloisi, A. (2022). Unconscious in Philosophy. In: The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98390-5_166-2
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Unconscious in Philosophy- Published:
- 11 February 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98390-5_166-2
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Unconscious in Philosophy- Published:
- 23 November 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98390-5_166-1