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