Consciousness as a concept didn't exist before 1694, when Locke introduced it
tobias_rees · x · 2026-10-05
Anthropologist Tobias Rees amplifies a striking claim from intellectual history: read all the philosophers for forty years and you may discover that the term, concept, and idea of consciousness simply doesn't exist anywhere before 1694, when Locke introduced it. Reading Aristotle explains why: the relevant Greek notion was nous. The takeaway: consciousness isn't a perennial question — it's not even "a thing" — but a modern obsession. A useful historical counterpoint to today's debates about AI consciousness.
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