From: utzoo!utcsrgv!simon Newsgroups: net.philosophy Title: Re: Any Julian Jaynes fans on the net? Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.1042 Posted: Wed Feb 16 14:52:13 1983 Received: Wed Feb 16 15:17:51 1983 References: ihuxr.329 I've read Jaynes' book and was also most impressed by his definition of consciousness. Its been some time, but as far as I remember he defined consciousness as the ability to construct a mental hypothetical world in which the concept corresponding to the 'I' could be manipulated. The point I tend to be most skeptical of is that consciousness is a relatively recent addition (ie within the last few thousand years) and so must have developed some time after language. (He even argues that the early Greeks, such as Homer, were not conscious by his definition.)