NOET'IC CONSCIOUSNESS (Gk. vonriK6s, relating to perception, from vono-ts, nt'sis, perception, from vociv, norin, to perceive, from v6os, noos, vooS, ?IOUS, perception. mind; probably connected with gigmiskein, to know, and ultimately with Eng. know). It is affirmed by many psychologists that the es sential iliarnc•teristic of mental process is its reference, beyond itself, to some object ; so that the only possible criterion of the ultimateness and irreducibility of a mental function is the irreducibility of the mode in which it thus refers to its object. Brentano distinguishes between ideation (or noetic consciousness). judgment or belief, and interest or liking. Stout, however. has recently raised the question whether it is possible for a sentient being to exist entirely de void of thought. i.e. to possess an anoetie con sciousness. To such a consciousness the antithe sis of subject and object would he meaningless; while there would seem to be no road front mere sentience to thought by any process of differen tiation or complieation. Stout leaves the ques tion unanswered, except in so far as the Inn difficulties just raised appear to prevent. for him,
any genetic passage from an anoetie to a noetie mind. The problems raised are of special interest to the epistemologist and the student of the evo lution of mind. The term noetic has had a long history in psychology. Plato disting,uishes be tween a noetic or incorporeal world of concepts, and :in :esthetic or corporeal world of perceptions. the latter being but an image of the reality of the former. Aristotle uses the word in the sense of 'capable or rational apprehension.' Ilamilton employs it to all those cognitions that originate in the mind while "dianoetic denotes the operations of the diseursive, elabora tive, or comparative faculty." Stout restricts the phrase •noetic synthesis' to "that union of presen tational elements which is involved in their ref erence to a single object: or, in other words, to their comhination as specifying constituents of the same thought." Consult: Stout, ..twaytic Psychology (London, ; Brentano, Psycho tom empirisehen Standpun(rle (Leipzig). 1574) ; Sir W. Hamilton. Lectures on .Metaphys ics, vol. ii. (London, 1859).