Extracted from “Consciousness”
Gilbert Ryle


I was conscious that the furniture had been rearranged
to indicate a certain nebulousness and consequent inarticulateness of the apprehension.
What we are conscious of, in this sense, may be a physical fact or
a fact about someone else’s state of mind-
but in a certain way we will not recognize them.

A walker engaged in a heated dispute may be unconscious of the sensations of his blistered heel.

He can make mistakes about their causes and he can make mistakes about their locations;
whether they are real or fancied.
The contents of this ghastly world could not be ascertained without the help of sense perception.

The mind can ‘see’ or ‘look at its own operations in the ‘light’ given off by themselves.

I should be recalling that I had just been recalling that I had just been recalling
that my watch has stopped.
I am synchronously discovering my watch has stopped that I am discovering
that my watch has stopped.

A truth about myself is flashed or shone upon me at the same moment
as a truth about my watch is ascertained by me.

-Jesse Haydn