INTROSPECTION
AND THE FUNCTIONS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
The study of consciousness may be
psychology’s most difficult endeavor. This is not because we are
methodologically inept, or lack the right high-tech gadgets. Instead, it is a
direct consequence of what consciousness
is—namely, our moment-by-moment awareness of ourselves, our thoughts, and our
environment. Crucially, this awareness is entirely “personalized.” As William
James put it many years ago: “The universal conscious fact is not ‘feelings and
thoughts exist,’ but ‘I think’ and ‘I feel’”. Inevitably, then, this
awareness is an entirely private matter. You cannot experience someone else’s
consciousness, nor they yours, and this raises a thorny issue: How can we find
out about the nature or the contents of consciousness? As mentioned above,
we’ll start with what seems to be the most straightforward proce-dure, in which
we ask people to introspect—to look
within themselves and then describe their subjective experience.
Introspection is a useful method
for psychology, but there are clear limits on what it can tell us. At the same
time, though, these limits on introspection are interesting on their own. As
we’ll see, they provide information about the role of consciousness within the
broader fabric of our mental lives. Let’s get started by looking at what we can learn from introspection. We’ll then
turn to the limits and find out what we can learn from them.
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