Perspectives on the Self (original) (raw)
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In the 1990s many analytic philosophers were inclined to deny that the expression ‘the self’ referred to anything at all. Others said that its meaning was too unclear for it to be used in worthwhile philosophical discussion. A third group thought that the only legitimate use of ‘I’ and ‘the self’ was its use to refer to the human being considered as a whole. This paper rejects these views. It makes a proposal about how to endow ‘the self’ with sufficiently clear meaning without taking it to refer to the whole human being. One needs to begin with phenomenology, with self-experience, with the experience of there being such a thing as the self. One can then approach the questions about metaphysics of the self—questions about the existence and nature of the self—in the light of the discussion of the phenomenology of the self.
The Riddle of the Self revisited
Studies in East European Thought, 2011
This paper pays tribute to Felix Trofimovich Mikhajlov (1930-2006), on the occasion of the publication of the third edition of his well-known book, Zagadka cˇelovecˇeskogo ja (The Riddle of the Self). Zagadka is a fine expression of the critical humanism that characterized some of the best Russian writing in the Marxist tradition. Moreover, the book provides an ingenious introduction to the philosophical framework of what in the West is called ''cultural-historical activity theory.'' The first part of the paper is a personal reminiscence about Felix, his remarkable gifts, and the friendship we enjoyed for more than 25 years. The second part returns to the themes of Zagadka and considers what resonance they have for us today, nearly half a century after its first publication. Keywords Activity Á Consciousness Á Creativity Á The ideal Á Intersubjectivity Á Knowledge Á Mind Á Normativity Á Personalism Á Reason Á Self Á Soviet philosophical culture This paper pays tribute to my friend and mentor, Felix Trofimovich Mikhajlov (1930-2006), on the occasion of the publication of the third edition of his Zagadka cˇelovecˇeskogo ja (2010). Zagadka is a remarkable book, written by a remarkable man. The book has its origins in the fertile years of the Khrushchev ''thaw''-it was first published in 1964-and remains a fine expression of the critical humanism that characterized some of the best Russian writing in the broadly Marxist tradition. A second, revised and expanded edition appeared in 1976, followed by an English translation in 1980. This second edition represents the most ingenious and
The Self-experience of the Self
Charles Larmore sums up in three statements the traditional position of philosophy about the self (with particular reference to René Descartes and John Locke): 1) it is impossible to be a self without being in relation with itself; 2) the relation that the self has with itself (and by which it is a self ) is a cognitive relation, it is a self-knowledge; 3) this relation of self-knowledge is of the same kind as the cognitive relation that the self has with the objects of the world. Larmore criticizes statements 2 and 3 and maintains that the relation (of the self with itself ) in which the nature of the self consists is not cognitive, but practical and normative: the nature of the self is the same relation of commitment that exists between my beliefs and my actions; each of my beliefs commits me to behave a certain way. In this paper, I want to refute Larmore’s criticism of statement 2 and to show, following Michel Henry, that the relation in which the nature of the self consists is actually a self-experience; I maintain that we can affirm statement 2 of the traditional position about the self without being forced to affirm also statement 3.
THE SELF IN THE WORLD: OVERCOMING CLASSICAL DUALISM AND SHAPING NEW LANDMARKS
Anthropological Measurements of Philosophical Research, 13, 2018
Purpose. Based on tracing dualistic tendencies in the history of the concept "self" formation, the paper aims to clarify in what way dualismcontradistinction of the self and sociality, in particularis being overcome in phenomenological and hermeneutic approaches to the self. Methodology. The systematic and integrative approaches, hermeneutic, phenomenological and retrospective methods, comparative analysis, description and synthesis underlie the research conducted in this paper. Theoretical basis. The development of the concept "self" is traced based on historical retrospective of its definitions. The paper shows the influence of Kantian interpretation of the self upon the contemporary approaches, presents the comparative analysis of the most recent definitions of the self and illustrates the study results on the relation of the self to the body, the world, the narration and the identity with reference to Martin Heidegger, Paul Ricoeur and Charles Taylor in particular. Originality. An integration of phenomenological and hermeneutic approaches to the self is introduced in the paper. It is argued that phenomenological and hermeneutic interpretations can be represented as complementing each other, since they share the anti-dualist perspective and interweave in description of the key aspects of the self, particularly sociality and language. Conclusion. Dualism is overcome in the contemporary interpretations of the self as it is clear from the phenomenological and hermeneutic approaches example. There is no more acute opposition between the self and the world, the self and the body, the self and the social life of a person. The self is considered as "being-in-the-world" which unfolds through intersection of different dimensions: subjectivity, body, temporality, language and sociality. Sociality provides the self with a moral framework through identity and enables conditions for person's self-fulfillment, since the self reaches completeness only by transcending itself towards the others. The modern discovery of the self entails the need to invent a new type of solidarity.
Hakara , 2020
This article focuses on the nature of my art practice where I have explored ideas based on aspects of the self within the context of humanity at large. The human form carries within a representation of an archetypal image which is both a portrayal of the individual and the masses. By merging the self into the other I have shown that the individual is a fragment of a larger entity where all life forms are connected by an underlying principle which is all pervading. When an individual is part of a larger social framework, there is bound to be a dependence on transfer of knowledge from a group or ancestry. It is in this transfer that an individual is bound to humanity for direction and guidance. This inter-connectedness does not end here and is carried on to other living and non-living entities. There is a larger force at work representing the self, humanity and beyond which is like an energy that connects us all with everything else. These ideas have helped me to shape the human form in newer ways than earlier imagined.
From Self-Knowledge to a Science of the Self
Annals of The New York Academy of Sciences, 2003
Abstract: Traditional accounts of the self represented in religion, literature, philosophy, and other branches of the humanities, are grounded in the subject's personal introspections. This source of knowledge has had a profound impact on terminology, concepts, and theories of the self. By contrast, the scientific method, which uses observational and experimental data, is aimed at objective analyses. The scientific approach to the self, by its very nature, is distinct from the approach in the humanities, and therefore reveals a different view of the self, and sparks new debate about what the self really is. Moreover, different scientific disciplines, spanning the natural and social sciences, investigate different levels of organization, leading to a multifaceted scientific picture of the self. This conference and volume explored areas where some of the different approaches to the self overlap and will, it is hoped, promote the establishment of a richer, more coherent image of what the self is.
Looking For the Self in Cognition
The main aim of this essay is to bridge the gap between the Self, the Other and the world. To this end, it would try to highlight the reversible relation btween the three constants. In order to lead up to this relation, the essay would try to delve into the emergence of self-awareness and selfhood and its relation with consciusness. At the outset, a brief history of philosophy of mind would be provided in order to show the birth of alienation between the subject and the world and how this paved the way for scientism. The essay advocates the notion of the Minimal Self or the Expriential Self as proposed by Dan Zahavi and try to show that accepting such a deflationary notion of selfood as the founding brick for more mature and robust notions of selfhood could potentially make the chiasmic relation between the Self, the Other and the world more conspicuous. The essay would also attempt to answer a previously encountered criticism regarding the conscious status of pre-reflective self-awareness. It would argue in favour of the indispensability of pre-reflective self-awareness as pure consciousness and nothing less and highlight the dimension of otherness in the embodied consciousness. Finally, the essay would try to argue in favour of a kind of minimal self-alienation which would prevent the subjective being from becoming stagnant and would preserve its becoming.
Self, Philosophical Considerations
Encyclopedia of Clinical PsychologyR. Cautin and S. Lilienfield (eds.) , 2014
From Socrates' admonition to know oneself and his claim that the unexamined life is not worth living, the self has occupied a central place in philosophical and scientific inquiry. Debates about the self include metaphysical questions on the nature and reality of selfhood, empirical questions about the developmental and historical trajectory of the human selves, and ethical questions about agency, responsibility, and autonomy. The answers to these metaphysical, empirical, and ethical questions are intertwined, as the nature of selfhood both constrains and enables the range of moral and political actions the individual engages with in a social world. This entry focuses on the realist and antirealist positions on the metaphysical question of the reality of the self and its scientific investigation. Realism has two fundamental commitments about the world posited by scientific theories: existence and evaluation-independence. According to the existence claim, both the everyday world of objects and their properties-the subject of scientific theorizing-do exist. According to the evaluation-independence claim, the objects and properties posited by a scientific theory exist independent from what human beings think about them or how they are linguistically articulated. As a corollary, realists about the self argue that the self exists; its features are evaluation independent; and these features can be scientifically investigated. Antirealists on the other hand suggest that there is no such thing as the self, that it is merely a construct and what is identified as its features are contingent upon cultural and linguistic practices.