The Unity Of Consciousness
2. The same holds true of the unity of consciousness, of which we are
directly convinced. It is quite inexplicable if consciousness is a
function of the extended and divisible physical substratum which is built
up of nerve-cells and nerve-fibres. And yet this unity is the fundamental
condition of our whole inner life.
Even the facts of association demonstrate it. Two images could not come
together, the one could not call up the other, if they were not possessed
in the same consciousness, and could unite in it. It is the preliminary
condition of every higher mode of thought, of every relating of things, of
every comparison and abstraction. No judgment can be formed, no conclusion
drawn without this. How could a predicate become associated with its
subject, or a principal clause with its subordinate clause, if they were
in separate consciousnesses, and how could the conclusion be drawn from
them?