As a technical philosophical term, “consciousness” and its cognates in other languages became important only in modern philosophy. it has been claimed that the concept was unknown in Ancient Greek philosophy. For medieval philosophy, such a straightforward claim would be obviously misleading. The phenomena related to the concept in modern philosophy were intensively studied during the Middles Ages, though with somewhat different conceptual schemes. Medieval authors discussed issues that nowadays are associated to consciousness in distinct contexts and in settings very different from the modern ones.
Contrary to what has sometimes been claimed, the Latin term conscientia was used in Classical Latin in a meaning close to modern English “consciousness.” Augustine, for example, claims (De trin. 13.1.3) that he has most certain knowledge of the faith he has in his heart through conscientia. Such usage of the word continued to the Middle Ages, but the word did not gain any central position in philosophical discussions before the modern era. More relevant medieval terms include, for example, cognitio reflexiva, notitia sui, cognitio intuitiva, intentio, and representatio.
Historically, medieval discussions of philosophical topics related to consciousness can be traced back to the Neoplatonic-Stoic tradition, to which Aristotelian elements were incorporated. This tradition was taken over by Arabic thinkers like Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Ibn Rushd (Averroes). Both had major influence on medieval Latin discussions. Also certain Ancient Roman thinkers like Augustine were important for the developments among Latin authors.
World History
