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The epigraph, from Ursula Le Guin’s science fiction novel The Left
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Hand of Darkness, describes the encounter of protagonist Genly Ai with
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Faxe, acolyte of the Zen- like cult of the Handdarata and their tradition
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of unlearning (57). Given to negatives (57), the Handdarata would
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immediately recognize unthought as indicating a kind of thinking
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without thinking. There is thought, but before it is unthought: a mode
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of interacting with the world enmeshed in the eternal present that
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forever eludes the belated grasp of consciousness.
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Unthought may also be taken to refer to recent discoveries in
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neuroscience confirming the existence of nonconscious cognitive processes inaccessible to conscious introspection but nevertheless essential for consciousness to function. Understanding the full extent of
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their power requires a radical rethinking of cognition from the ground
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up. In addition, because the very existence of nonconscious cognitive
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processes is largely unknown in the humanities, unthought indicates the terra incognita that beckons beyond our received notions of
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how consciousness operates. Gesturing toward the rich possibilities
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that open when nonconscious cognition is taken into account, unthought also names the potent force of conceptualizing interactions
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between human and technical systems that enables us to understand more clearly the political, cultural, and ethical stakes of living in contemporary developed societies.
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The first step toward actualizing this potential is terminological
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ground clearing about conscious, unconscious, and nonconscious
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mental processes.
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