Incessant mind...?

Question

Is it the eventual fate of all great thinkers to collapse under the weight of their own conciousness?

Sorry, consciousness.

I think you are confusing conscious with conscience. The two are completely different.

And my question asks if an individual can collapse under the weight of his or her consciousness, not if his or her consciousness can collapse.

Above edit in response to Colo. Thanks for answering.

Answer 1

No, what you are trying to say here is a biased view of consciousness from your own. every one of us has a different philosophy and as such these people have their own consciousness. they worked and based their actions, judgments, decisions on their own philosophy and conscience. so what you see is that every one of these people uses their personal philosophy to create and thus will have only used their philosophy which they themselves made.

how can their consciousness even collapse if they are above their conscience. our conscience are our values, beliefs, traditions, knowledge. people uses this as a reference point for their actions and will always be greater than their own conscience. these people will have acted on what their conscience is telling them. that is when they do what is not right for their own conscience, then they will be bothered by their conscience.

Answer 2

(IMO)
Not collapse, per se, more like an overload. Look at Wittgenstien; he spent years trying to escape from philosophy, even going so far as to say it was pointless (an irony since he was one ot the most prominent philosophers inthe world at the time). When he came back to Cambridge after a hiatus he was horrified to discover that he was one of the most respected philosophers of the land. He didn't expect Bertrand Russel to understand his thesis, and claimed at times he could barely understand it himself. The man created no end of metaphysical mazes....
Myself, I find that it is all too easy to get so lost in the complexities of my own thoughts that they become impossible to untangle, and I end up unable to act or even to begin to sort them out. Not a collapse so much as a mental paralysis. That is when alcohol becomes all the more allluring.
If you go far enough into metaphysics you spend a lot of the time trying to re-create your steps up to the last established truth, in order to progress with full understanding. The problem arises when you end up diverging incessantly, and even dis-proving what you earlier proved. It can give no end of headaches.
Although I do not claim to be a great thinker myself, I can say I have done enough to understand exactly how horrible it must be to be trapped by your own incessant thought process and view of the world....
Not all great thinkers have this, but a lot of them do seem to approach it, especially towards the end of their careers (Cause or effect??...)

Answer 3

i would say no, its not the fate of all great thinkers, but can be the fate of some
the word moderation is so important, i feel, in most everything in life
if one goes overboard with their thinking, with the concerns that their mind brings to their attention, then yes, it can lead to collapse, their conciousness may lead them to push on and on, rather then taking the breaks that all need, so they end up not being well balanced, both mentally and physically , and if they push too far , then collaspe often happens
and really, were they great thinkers? or did they think great thoughts in one or a few areas? as a great thinker would think to use moderation, and respect the boundaries of their self , it seems to me

Answer 4

The mind has no limit for consciousness. The weight comes from avaluation and positions.