consciousnessn.
/ˈkɒnʃəsnəs/, U.S. /ˈkɑnʃəsnəs/ 1. Internal knowledge or conviction; the state or fact of being mentally conscious or aware of something. Cf. consciousness to oneself at Phrases.black, class-, price, traffic consciousness, etc.: see the first element.† b. Without construction. Obsolete except as passing into senses 2, 4.
a. With prepositional phrase or clause.
(a) With of something about or internal to oneself.
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the mind > mental capacity > consciousness > self-consciousness > [noun] > internal knowledge or conviction
consciencec1384
consciousness1605
conscientiousness1640
self-consciousness1655
1605 E. Sandys Relation State of Relig. sig. L2 Laying the ground of all his pollicie, in feare and ielousie issuing from a certaine consciousnesse of his owne worthlesness.
1614 T. Jackson Third Bk. Comm. Apostles Creede iii. 199 The Egyptians consciousnesse of their vnmercilesse practises against poore Israel.
1632 P. Massinger Maid of Honour i. ii. sig. C4 The Consciousnesse of mine owne wants.
1649 Resol. & Remonstr. Navie sig. A3v Then a consciousness of being strictly observed, and if faulty, displast; a more notable both reigne to dissolutenesse and spur to duty cannot be.
1686 R. Boyle Free Enq. Notion Nature 358 With Consciousness of what She does, and for pre-designed Ends.
1770 ‘Junius’ Stat Nominis Umbra (1772) II. xxxix. 99 There is..a palpable consciousness of guilt.
1832 Christian's Penny Mag. 4 Aug. 67/1 Trembling and bowed down with the consciousness of sin, Adam stands before his offended Maker.
1860 T. B. Macaulay Biogr. (1867) 11 Bentley..was supported by the consciousness of an immeasurable superiority.
1871 B. Jowett in tr. Plato Dialogues II. 5 Happy in the consciousness of a well-spent life.
1900 A. V. G. Allen Life & Lett. Phillips Brooks II. xviii. 597 In one of these now familiar photographs, the head is thrown back as in the consciousness of his power.
1968 E. P. Papanoutsos Found. Knowl. ii. iv. 123 The connection of brutality with drunkenness, of aggressiveness with consciousness of inferiority and guilt, [etc.].
2010 T. MacFaul Poetry & Paternity in Renaissance Eng. iv. 113 The pain may reflect her consciousness of her own sexuality, in contrast to her mother's unconsciousness.
(b) With of a fact, information.
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1748 J. Hervey Contempl. Night in Medit. & Contempl. (ed. 2) II. 12 Let it..become one with the very Consciousness of my Existence!
1819 W. Scott Ivanhoe I. iii. 53 Some neighbouring baron, whose consciousness of strength made him equally negligent of the laws of property.
1824 C. R. Maturin Albigenses III. iii. 19 From a troubled and melancholy dream, Genevieve awoke at dawn, with a confused consciousness of something important to be done or expected soon.
1864 G. H. Lewes Hist. Philos. II. 142 The consciousness of my existence is to me the assurance of my existence.
1883 ‘G. Lloyd’ Ebb & Flow II. xxi. 18 For a few moments he lost the consciousness of why he was miserable.
1930 J. A. Williamson Short Hist. Brit. Expansion (ed. 2) II. vi. v. 247 Nothing but the consciousness of a good cause enabled Lord Salisbury to turn the cheek to the smiter.
2006 M. Pollan Omnivore's Dilemma Introd. 9 This labor- and thought-intensive dinner..gave me the opportunity, so rare in modern life, to eat in full consciousness of everything involved in feeding myself.
(c) With subordinate clause.
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1776 A. Smith Inq. Wealth of Nations I. i. xi. 193 The anxiety of the proprietors..seems..to indicate a consciousness..that this species of cultivation is..more profitable than any other. View more context for this quotation
1814 J. W. Cunningham Pneumanee (1815) 61 But recollecting himself, and feeling a consciousness that he could never disappoint expectations so pleasing to his heart, he put on an air of cheerful attention.
1860 C. Dickens Uncommerc. Traveller in All Year Round 29 Sept. 588/2 The pair have a dejected consciousness that they are not justified in appearing on the surface of the earth.
1906 G. R. Sims Living London (rev. ed.) II. 313/1 Such a young gentleman, which he wakes to the consciousness that another day has arrived to be killed, occasionally feels ‘hipped,’ and requires a slight stimulant before he rises and performs his toilet.
2002 Premiere Jan. 56/1 We all had a consciousness that even though we were in Vegas, it [sc. the film Ocean's Eleven] shouldn't be one big screw-off.
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1653 J. Goodwin Συγκρητισμός 20 Or is it not a secret guilt or consciousness in the generality of men of their own narrow-chestedness and self-ward propensions, which make them jealous that other men are.
1725 A. Pope Let. 25 Dec. in Corr. Alexander Pope (1956) II. 353 An honest mind is not in the power of a dishonest: to break its peace, there must be some guilt or consciousness.
1804 Crit. Rev. Oct. 182 He proceeds with a consciousness of rectitude in his career: we can lay our hands on our bosoms, and solemnly appeal to the same heart-felt consciousness.
1833 W. Godwin Deloraine III. xvii. 265 I knew that I was the true author of these tragedies. But I possessed this consciousness to myself.
2. Philosophy and Psychology.
a. The faculty or capacity from which awareness of thought, feeling, and volition and of the external world arises; the exercise of this. In Psychology also: spec. the aspect of the mind made up of operations which are known to the subject.The word had been used to cover a wide variety of mental phenomena, being applied both to whole organisms and to particular mental states and processes. Accounts differ in two main ways: (i) as to whether consciousness is transitive or intransitive, i.e. whether it is primarily an awareness of something distinct from the conscious subject or primarily a state of the conscious subject; (ii) as to whether it involves self-consciousness, i.e. awareness of one’s own states, even if one is also conscious of things distinct from oneself. An organism’s consciousness may thus range from a simple capacity to sense and respond to surroundings, and this to varying degrees and in different ways, to an awareness of its own awareness. For ‘wakefulness’ as an aspect of consciousness see sense 5.See also altered state of consciousness at altered adj. and n. Compounds, datum of consciousness at datum n. 2b, split consciousness n. at split adj. Compounds 2c(a), state of consciousness at state n. 2c, stream of consciousness n., threshold of consciousness at threshold n. 4a.
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the mind > mental capacity > consciousness > [noun]
wita1000
i-mindOE
mindc1350
common wita1398
advertencec1405
common sense1543
consciousness1678
conscious1852
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > epistemology > [noun] > consciousness
consciousness1678
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > philosophy of reflection of self > [noun] > consciousness of oneself
self-consciousness1646
consciousness1678
1678 R. Cudworth True Intellect. Syst. Universe i. i. 36 Neither can Life and Cogitation, Sense and Consciousness..ever result from Magnitudes, Figures, Sites and Motions.
1690 J. Locke Ess. Humane Understanding ii. i. 43 Consciousness is the perception of what passes in a man's own mind.
1707 S. Clarke Second Def. Argument 4 Consciousness, in the most strict and exact Sense of the Word, signifies..the Reflex Act by which I know that I think, and that my Thoughts and Actions are my own and not Anothers.
1785 T. Reid Ess. Intellect. Powers i. i Consciousness is a word used by Philosophers, to signify that immediate knowledge which we have of our present thoughts and purposes, and, in general, of all the present operations of our minds.
1842 Sir W. Hamilton in Reid's Wks. (1872) Note B. 810/1 Consciousness is a knowledge solely of what is now and here present to the mind. It is therefore only intuitive, and its objects exclusively presentative.
1875 A. Bain Emotions & Will (ed. 3) 550 It is a general law of the mental constitution..that change of impression is essential to consciousness in every form.
1907 M. W. Keatinge Suggestion in Educ. ii. 25 The fundamental division of mind into consciousness and subconsciousness, and the varying degrees of relationship in which subconscious ideas stand to consciousness and colour the ideas in it, are instances of the natural tendency of the mind to manifoldness.
1963 T. A. Burkill God & Reality in Mod. Thought i. 9 All consciousness is at once a consciousness of the self and a consciousness of objects, neither being possible without the other.
2009 M. Velmans Understanding Consciousness (ed. 2) i. i. 3 Our understanding of consciousness is also determined by our intellectual history. We are the inheritors of ancient debates.
b. As a count noun. A state or form of consciousness.See also dream consciousness n. at dream n.2 and adj. Compounds 1a(b), false consciousness n. at false adj., adv., and n. Additions.
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the mind > mental capacity > consciousness > [noun] > certain state of
consciousness1689
1689 R. Baxter Treat. Knowl. & Love Compared ii. xix. 312 By one and the same act we see and perceive that we see; and by one and the same act (I think) we know and know that we know, and this by a consciousness or internal sense which is the immediate act of the Essence of the faculty.
1706 S. Clarke Disc. Nat. Relig. 180 It is highly unreasonable and absurd, to suppose the Soul made up of innumerable Consciousnesses.
a1807 W. Wordsworth Prelude (1959) iii. 78 From deep analogies by thought supplied, Or consciousnesses not to be subdued.
a1853 F. W. Robertson Serm. (1857) 3rd Ser. iv. 56 His [sc. man's] will is not his affections, neither are his affections his thoughts... They are separate consciousnesses, living consciousnesses.
1870 T. H. Huxley Lay Serm. (1871) 327 Whatever our marble may be in itself, all that we can know of it is under the shape of a bundle of our own consciousnesses.
1915 R. W. Frazer Indian Thought ix. 181 This sect was known as Yogācāras; the only thing they would admit the reality of was a series of thoughts or consciousnesses.
2009 A. Ademoyo in I. Okpewho & N. Nzegwu New Afr. Diaspora v. xxvi. 504 A further explication of a true self-consciousness can only yield a single consciousness that allows one to imagine oneself and the world while embracing its multiple cultures from one's own standpoint just like other peoples do.
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the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > knowledge, what is known > familiarity > self-knowledge > [noun] > mutual knowledge
enterknowledge1590
interknowledge1652
interknowinga1656
consciousness1681
1681 Whole Duty of Nations 49 Consciousness, or mutual knowledg of persons and their worship.
4.
a. The totality of the impressions, thoughts, and feelings, which make up a person's sense of self or define a person's identity.See also double consciousness n. at double adj.1 and adv. Compounds 1, to evolve from one's inner consciousness at evolve v. 6b.
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the mind > mental capacity > consciousness > [noun] > totality of
consciousness1694
1694 J. Locke Ess. Humane Understanding (new ed.) ii. xxvii. 183 If the same consciousness..can be transferr'd from one thinking Substance to another, it will be possible that two thinking Substances may make but one Person.
1708 Brit. Apollo 16–21 Apr. Those many Consciousnesses must be as the Constituent Parts of that one Individual Consciousness.
1784 E. Allen Reason vi. 224 The divine mind knows all things, and among others the individual consciousnesses of mankind.
a1807 W. Wordsworth Prelude (1959) ii. 44 When I think of them, I seem Two consciousnesses, conscious of myself And of some other Being.
1840 Oberlin Evangelist 25 Mar. 51/2 So if ten thousand witnesses should testify that he had performed some good act, he could feel no self-complacency, or sense of self-approbation and virtue, unless his consciousness bore its testimony to the same fact.
1877 E. R. Conder Basis of Faith ii. 91 From our innermost consciousness, a voice is heard, clothed with native authority..‘I feel. I think. I will. I am.’
1938 S. A. Solovay & J. H. Mueller tr. E. Durkheim Rules Sociol. Method p. liii We gave a definition of social facts as ways of acting or thinking with the peculiar characteristic of exercising a coercive influence on individual consciousnesses.
2003 J. E. Upledger Cell Talk (2010) 377 She requested of her consciousness that all malignancies should disappear.
b. Attributed as a collective faculty to an aggregate of people, a period of time, etc.; a set of shared defining ideas and beliefs.
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the mind > mental capacity > consciousness > collective consciousness > [noun]
mindsc1580
consciousness1718
1718 H. Grove Ess. towards Demonstr. Soul's Immateriality ii. 59 And now where shall we seek for a common Consciousness, that may run through all, and, like a Band, tie them together?
1793 Monthly Rev. Aug. 392 Universal consciousness must produce universal conviction and agreement.
1837 H. Martineau Society in Amer. III. 198 While few can be found to agree even upon matters of so-called universal consciousness.
1865 G. Grote Plato I. Pref. p. vii Such intellects broke loose from the common consciousness of the world around them.
1924 W. B. Selbie Psychol. Relig. 102 The social element in these early forms of ritual..points to a tribal consciousness which has in it at least the beginnings of an ethico-social outlook.
2010 L. Witham Marketplace of Gods x. 193 While the idea of my generation being a vanguard for a new consciousness is quite romantic, the economic explanation is just as plausible.
c. With adjective specifying an area of operation, as moral consciousness, religious consciousness, etc.
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a1758 T. Newman Serm. on Happiness (1760) II. xv. 393 The silence of conscience..may be, and very often is, the effect of stupidity; searedness of conscience; hardness of heart; or from the loss of the power of moral consciousness.
a1795 S. Bishop Poet. Wks. (1796) I. 63 The social consciousness serene; Which founds (un-dup'd by popular names) On general duties, private claims.
1817 Edinb. Rev. Nov. 343/2 It is not our intention..to enter into any metaphysical discussion of the connection between mind and matter, or to canvass the opinions of men with regard to moral consciousness and innate or acquired ideas.
1863 M. Howitt tr. F. Bremer Greece & Greeks II. xvi. 157 The commencement of a moral consciousness.
1876 E. White Life in Christ (ed. 2) i. viii. 88 The religious consciousness of the age.
1935 Mind 44 544 Insistence on the alogical, or prelogical, character of the aesthetic consciousness.
2008 R. Corfe Social Capitalism in Theory & Pract. I. i. v. 57 Although collectivism was a necessary component for this strategy, seen in another context, it could be interpreted as a de-humanising or regressive development of the social consciousness.
5. The state of being aware of and responsive to one's surroundings, regarded as the normal condition of waking life.Consciousness is no longer regarded as having only two states, but many levels, the measurement of which is an important part of the assessment of persons with brain injury; it has also been shown in psychology that people can process and respond to information presented subliminally even if they are not, or are only partially, aware of it.
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the world > physical sensation > physical sensibility > [noun] > consciousness
wita1000
mindc1300
perceptiona1398
percipiency1662
feeling1734
consciousness1753
percipience1768
self-feeling1798
sentience1839
sentiencya1850
cœnaesthesisa1856
cœnaesthesia1885
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > [noun] > state of awareness
consciencec1384
knowledgea1398
sensibility?c1425
knowingness1611
cognizance1635
conusance1635
cognoscence1647
vaticination1678
consciousness1753
awareness1839
clairvoyance1861
perceivingness1872
1753 M. McNamara Let. to Miss Nossiter 39 Her Eyes begin to see, her Features brightened, as if newly informed by Sentiment. How sweetly does her Consciousness return?
1773 J. Home Alonzo iii. ii. 42 An interval like death ensued. When consciousness return'd, I found myself Stretch'd at my length upon the naked ground.
1836 C. Dickens Pickwick Papers (1837) xxi. 219 When the fever left him, and consciousness returned, he awoke to find himself rich and free.
1885 W. L. Davidson Logic of Definition 136 The mind's wakeful activity is consciousness—consciousness as opposed to dormancy, dreamless sleep, swoon, insensibility.
1933 Jrnl. Royal Aeronaut. Soc. 37 397 The effect most frequently noticed is the well-known phenomenon of ‘blacking-out’, wherein the subject without losing consciousness becomes momentarily blind.
2008 G. Cullen Loose Ends xliv. 128 As I regain consciousness I'm alarmed to discover that the screaming is coming from me.
6. As the second element of compounds with the sense ‘consciousness of ——, awareness of ——’.class-, eco-, race consciousness, etc.: see the first element.Some less common formations are illustrated here.
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1896 G. Eyre-Todd Sc. Poetry 18th Cent. II. 168 From the days of his first love-consciousness, when he picked the stings from the hand of his fair companion on the harvest-rig at Mount Oliphant.
1898 B. Sidis Psychol. of Suggestion xxiii. 234 Two or more fully independent functioning constellations of moments-consciousness, such as is presented in the phenomena of automatic writing and of hysteria.
1939 Washington Post 20 Aug. (Sports section) 2/3 Adolf Luque and Mike Gonzales, native Cubans, were bright stars in the big leagues and Havana's baseball consciousness was terrific.
1966 H. Davies New London Spy (1967) 104 It is only recently that the exploding teenage market and the world of pop have injected the necessary vitality and unabashed dress-consciousness to make London the shopping centre..of the youthful gods of today.
1990 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) May 42/2 Profile groups were set up by sociologists and psychologists from Ireland to Algeria to corral this cash-consciousness craze.
2002 Fine Homebuilding Mar. 6/2 I suggest that your magazine raise its own awareness of sustainability and energy-consciousness, and think twice about giving press to antisocial products.
Phrases
consciousness to oneself rare (now archaic) = sense 1.
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1690 J. Locke Ess. Humane Understanding iii. viii. 230 Had not their consciousness to themselves of their ignorance..kept them from so idle an attempt.
1709 Ld. Halifax Let. 6 Sept. in Private Corr. Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough (1838) I. 227 A comfort which is beyond all this, a consciousness to yourself that you have been the happy instrument of advancing and recommending to the Queen this man.
1850 J. D. Willard in P. Ross Standard Hist. Freemasonry N.Y. (1899) I. vi. xi. 435/2 But sir, I am peculiarly gratified by the result to-night; as it brings with it a consciousness to myself that I have not altogether disappointed the expectations and wishes of the brethren, in the discharge of my official duties during the past year.
1871 S. Thornton in Authorized Rep. Church Congr. 111 Our want of prayer, want of self-control and self-denial, and firm grip of Christ and His truth, may be regarded as one cause of the peril and spiritual ruin (without any consciousness to ourselves of the fact) of thousands of our fellow-countrymen.
2002 P. Ramsey in K. L. Vaux et al. Covenants of Life iii. 220 The ‘comparative indignity’ of my ‘consciousness to’ myself of those assaults if I had not at least minimally agreed those procedures might be done upon me.
Compounds
consciousness-expanding adj. = psychedelic adj. 1.
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the world > health and disease > healing > medicines or physic > medicines for specific purpose > medicine for mental conditions > [adjective] > psychotropic or psychedelic
psychopharmacologic1948
phrenotropic1956
psychedelic1957
psychochemical1958
consciousness-expanding1962
psychopharmaceutical1962
psychopharmacological1964
1962 T. Leary et al. in Bull. Atomic Scientists May 27/1 Included among those who hail the humanistic promise of consciousness-expanding drugs are a few psychiatrists who have seen beyond psychopathology to the adaptive potential of the human brain.
1967 Psychic News 26 Aug. 7/4 Mescalin, LSD and the like have an awakening, consciousness-expanding effect.
2000 Independent 15 Apr. ii. 7/1 So-called ‘magic’ mushrooms and their chemical relative DMT, he insisted, are not drugs in the common sense but consciousness-expanding tools.
consciousness-raiser n. originally U.S. a person engaged in, or thing involved in, consciousness-raising.
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society > society and the community > social attitudes > [noun] > activity of increasing political awareness > one who
consciousness-raiser1971
1971 Commerce Jrnl. (Texas) 28 Oct. b3 (advt.) Consciousness-raiser! Jonathan Logan's pantslook with a sure sense of now identity.
1974 National Rev. (U.S.) 12 Apr. 428/2 Left-nationalist consciousness-raisers succeeded in persuading only 5 per cent of voters to worry about American economic domination.
1983 Times 14 Feb. 8/7 Lesbians, anti-enfibulators, peace protesters and consciousness-raisers.
2008 Guardian (Nexis) 12 May (Features section) 26 Meetings were often dominated by celebrity consciousness-raisers Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland, who were touring their antiwar theatre revue..to military bases all over the country.
consciousness-raising n. originally U.S. the activity or experience of increasing a person's sensitivity or awareness, esp. in social or political matters (see raise v.1 18d).
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society > society and the community > social attitudes > [noun] > activity of increasing political awareness
conscientization1964
consciousness-raising1968
1968 Notes from First Year June 15 If there is anything we can learn from the black liberation movement, it is that the primary job is consciousness-raising.
1985 Amer. Speech 60 13 Terms such as consciousness-raising, sex object,..and Ms., through which women have attempted to replace the received patriarchal names with a new vernacular articulating their own..perceptions.
2007 Esquire Oct. 104/1 The biggest global warming consciousness-raising event to date, Live Earth, took place this year bathed in glorious, greenhouse-gas enriched Wembley sunshine.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2011; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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