Coming To

"In "Coming To," Timothy Harrison reminds us of the forgotten role of poetry in the history of the idea of consciousness. Drawing our attention to a sea change in the English seventeenth century, when, over the course of a half century, "conscience" made a sudden shift to "consciousness," he traces a line that leads from the philosophy of Renâe Descartes to the poetry of John Milton, from the prenatal memories of theologian Thomas Traherne to the unresolved perspective on natality, consciousness, and ethics in the philosophy of John Locke. Harrison shows how each of these figures responded to the importance accorded the first-person perspective and their views of the origins of how human thought began. Taken together, the writings of this unlikely group of thinkers sheds new light on the emergence of the concept of consciousness and the meaning of human natality. It will be read by literary scholars, philosophers, and historians of science alike"--