Self-Experience: Essays on Inner Awareness

Recent debates on phenomenal consciousness have revived the idea that experience includes an experience of the self, known as self-experience. This view, associated with historical figures such as William James, Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, and Sartre, is attracting attention from phenomenology, analytic philosophy of mind, and cognitive science. The book explores the existence, essence, function, and explanation of self-experience, surveying various domains of human experience and offering insights into the possible relations between subjective awareness and other concepts.

Format: Hardback
Length: 384 pages
Publication date: 02 February 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press

Recent discussions on phenomenal consciousness have sparked a renewed fascination with the notion that experience encompasses a self-experience, regardless of the other aspects it presents to the self. When an individual undergoes an ordinary experience, such as perceiving a bouncing red ball, it is not merely that they are phenomenally aware of the world as being presented in a specific manner (e.g., a bouncy, reddish, roundish way in this case). Rather, they are also phenomenally aware of the fact that it is being presented to them. This purported phenomenal dimension has been referred to by various names, including mineness, for-me-ness, pre-reflective self-awareness, and subjective character, among others. This perspective, associated with historical figures like William James, Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, and Sartre, is gaining renewed attention in the intersections of phenomenology, analytic philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of cognitive science. However, it is also generating intense controversy.

This book delves into some of the central questions that are at the heart of the ongoing debate surrounding the purported subjective dimension of experience. These questions include: Does the self-experience exist? The existence question; What is it? The essence question; What is it for? The function question; and What else does it explain? The explanation question. Additionally, the volume surveys various domains of human experience, both normal and pathological, where a sense of self may be at play, including agency, bodily awareness, introspection, memory, emotions, and values. It offers insights into the possible relations between the notions of subjective awareness involved.

The first part of the book focuses on more skeptical or deflationary views about self-experience, while the second part explores more robust ones. By examining these perspectives, the book aims to provide a comprehensive exploration of the complex and multifaceted nature of the self-experience and its implications for our understanding of consciousness and the human mind.

Weight: 698g
Dimension: 240 x 161 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780198805397