A Sliver of Consciousness

On Friday I attended the George Lakoff lecture at the University of Oregon.

The basic theme--cognitive schemata, frames, and metaphor theory applied to the current landscape of American politics--is the one he's devoted himself to largely supplanting his work in linguistics for the last decade. Given that, I got more from the talk than I expected.

One claim he made is not so surprising yet still provocative: that 98% of our behavior is unconscious.

If this be true (and, give or take quibbles about the exact percent, the boundary between consciousness and unconsciousness, etc., it is likely to be) then what is the use? Why try to figure out the meaning of life, or the meaning of anything, if even a good answer applies to only two percent of our behavior?

The key is the role of consciousness in the formation and modification of habit. Though most of our behavior, the relatively or completely unconscious part, is habitual--William James noted the important role of consciousness in modifying our habits.

As such, that 2% comes with an important modifier effect. It can, successively over the course of time, shape a much larger amount of unconscious habit. That is the scope of our freedom, and our responsibility.