Definition
Consciousness-raising is the act of making people newly aware of an assumption they had been holding without noticing it — bringing a hidden premise into the open so that it can be examined.
The phrase entered wide use through twentieth-century social movements, which used it to describe the moment a previously invisible norm becomes visible and therefore questionable. Dawkins borrows the term and applies it to several assumptions he wants readers to notice.
Why it matters
How it works
Consciousness-raising works by surfacing the implicit. One example Dawkins offers concerns the labeling of children: he asks readers to notice that we speak of a "Christian child" or a "Muslim child," whereas we would not speak of a "Marxist child," and to consider whether that habit reflects an assumption worth examining.
The aim of the move is to make the assumption available for thought. Whether the reader then revises it is left to the reader.