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I’ve long been interested in human consciousness, so I’m excited that Japanese has a host of fascinating words about that concept. The word for “consciousness” is 意識, ishiki (mind + discernment).
Strangely, ishiki sounds like dashiki. Since the 1960s in the United States, this West African garment has signified a raised consciousness about black culture and politics.
And suddenly we’re a world away from Japan! How did we stray so far, so quickly? Consciousness—faster than the speed of light!
The word 意識 doesn’t necessarily refer to a raised consciousness of social issues. Here are two terms for that:
社会意識 (shakai ishiki: social consciousness)
society (1st 2 chars.) + consciousness (last 2 chars.)
問題意識 (mondai ishiki: awareness of the issues)
problem (1st 2 chars.) + consciousness (last 2 chars.)
Instead, 意識 can more generally mean “awareness” or “sense.” Take this term:
苦手意識 (nigate ishiki: awareness that somebody or something is hard to deal with; awareness that one is not good at something)
poor at (1st 2 chars.) + consciousness (last 2 chars.)
Forget about the second meaning of 苦手意識; I don’t want to think about all the things I’m not good at doing. But the first meaning? I’m enraptured! Scads of difficult people exist at all levels of my consciousness! I have some choice words for them, but none as proper (and as fun!) as this Japanese term. How have English speakers survived so long without an analogue?
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“I used to wake up at 4 A.M. and start sneezing, sometimes for five hours. I tried to find out what sort of allergy I had but finally came to the conclusion that it must be an allergy to consciousness.”
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With 意識 to guide us, let’s sift through the layers of the mind, starting with this word:
意識的 (ishikiteki: conscious, deliberate)
consciousness (1st 2 chars.) + adjectival suffix
This seems straightforward—but is it? One could interpret the first definition, “conscious,” as referring to the conscious mind. After all, we see that type of meaning in this word:
下意識 (kaishiki: preconscious, unconscious, subconscious)
below + consciousness (last 2 chars.)
But the second definition of 意識的 is “deliberate,” which suggests that when it comes to 意識的, “conscious” means “intentional.” This sense brings to mind 故意に (koi ni) from the last blog. That term referred to doing something horrible with full knowledge of what one is doing. By contrast, 意識的 can be either positive or negative.
As if individual consciousness weren’t hard enough to tame and keep track of, we all share another type of consciousness—the collective unconscious:
集合的無意識 (shūgōteki muishiki: collective unconscious)
to collect + to combine + adjectival suffix +
un- + consciousness (last 2 chars.)This six-kanji agglomeration looks daunting, but it breaks down logically enough. The first three characters mean “collective.” And the last three mean “unconscious,” both in the sense of “being unaware of what one is doing” and “being knocked out.”
On the Collective Unconscious …
Finally, no discussion of consciousness would be complete without this term:
意識の流れ (ishiki no nagare: stream of consciousness)
consciousness (1st 2 chars.) + stream
In fact, no life would be complete if we couldn’t float down the rivers of our thoughts. (Or is that only a self-serving philosophy to justify my lack of focus?!)
Well, our stream has brought us to today’s Verbal Logic Quiz. Even if you feel like skipping out on the quiz, click on through to the Answers page, which has a special feature written by a talented guest!
