Consciousness and the Voices of the Mind

Julian Jaynes was an American psychologist, best known for his book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind 1976 , in which he argued that ancient peoples were not conscious.Jaynes defines consciousness narrowly than some philosophers Jaynes definition of consciousness is synonymous with what philosophers now call meta consciousness or meta awareness i.e awareness of awareness, thoughts about thinking, desires about desires, beliefs about beliefs This form of reflection is also distinct from the kinds of deliberations seen in other higher animals such as crows insofar as Jaynesian consciousness is dependent on linguistic cognition.