"Consciousness of having done an Action is an Idea imprinted on the Brain."

— Collins, Anthony (1676-1729)


Work Title
Date
1738
Metaphor
"Consciousness of having done an Action is an Idea imprinted on the Brain."
Metaphor in Context
I can know 'I' did something in the past despite this flux which may involve no residual particles that were part of the original system at the time of an event: Consciousness of having done an Action is an Idea imprinted on the Brain, by recollecting or bringing into View our Ideas before they are worn out; which continues in me, not only the Memory of the Action itself, but that I did it. And if there is now and then a Recollection of a past Action, Mr. Clarke may, by what I have siad, conceive a Man may be conscious of things done by him, though he has not one Particle of Matter the same that he had at the doing of those things, without Consciousness's being transferred from one Subject to another in any absurd Sense of those words.
Provenance
Reading Martin's and Barresi's Naturalization of the Soul (57).
Date of Entry
10/25/2004
Date of Review
04/26/2007

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.