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conscious automatism

conscious automatism noun: synonym of epiphenomenalism.

Noun

conscious automatism (uncountable)

  1. (archaic) Synonym of epiphenomenalism
    • […] and in that case even proud man's consciousness is no more a cause of his actions than the flash is the cause of the explosion of which it is a concomitant.
      A strange conclusion seems to come from this theory of Conscious Automatism, however the “Automatists” themselves may be able to evade it.1879, J. Whiteley, “Machinery and Morals”, in Paper for the Times on Religion, Ethics and Conduct, volume I, London: E. W. Allen, page 25
    • Now, this theory of conscious automatism is not merely a legitimate outcome of the theory that nervous changes are the causes of mental changes, but it is logically the only possible outcome. Nor do I see any way in which this theory can be fought on grounds of physiology. If we persist in...1896, George John Romanes, Mind and Motion and Monism, new edition, London; New York; Bombay: Longmans, Green, and Co., page 19

Examples of conscious automatism in a sentence

  • Now, this theory of conscious automatism is not merely a legitimate outcome of the theory that nervous changes are the causes of mental changes, but it is logically the only possible outcome.1896, George John Romanes, Mind and Motion and Monism, new edition, London; New York; Bombay: Longmans, Green, and Co., page 19:
  • The theory of human automatism that best captured the Victorian imagination was Thomas Huxley’s conscious automatism.2024 March 15, Suzy Anger, Victorian Automata: Mechanism and Agency in the Nineteenth Century, Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; New Dehli...

Synonyms of conscious automatism

Origin of conscious automatism

From conscious + automatism. Coined by physician and author w: in 1876.

Questions about conscious automatism

What does conscious automatism mean?
Conscious automatism means synonym of epiphenomenalism.
How do you use conscious automatism in a sentence?
Now, this theory of conscious automatism is not merely a legitimate outcome of the theory that nervous changes are the causes of mental changes, but it is logically the only possible outcome.
What part of speech is conscious automatism?
Conscious automatism is a noun.

Words near conscious automatism in the dictionary

  1. conscionably
  2. conscioned
  3. conscions
  4. conscious
  5. conscious and oriented
  6. conscious automatism
  7. conscious hip hop
  8. conscious parallelism
  9. conscious rap
  10. conscious sedation
  11. conscious uncoupling

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: conscious automatism (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “conscious automatism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/conscious_automatism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.