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Consciousness and Self-Consciousness

Authors: Uriah Kriegel;

Consciousness and Self-Consciousness

Abstract

What is the relation between consciousness and self-consciousness? In recent philosophy of mind, we are accustomed to underlining their independence. It is often emphasized that a person can be conscious of a host of objects, features, and states of affairs unrelated to her. When a person is conscious of the sky, or consciously experiences the blueness of the sky, she is not attending to herself in the least. That is, she is not self-conscious. Yet she is very clearly conscious. Therefore, consciousness can occur in the absence of self-consciousness. I think there is something amiss in this picture. I will argue that consciousness essentially involves self-consciousness, in the sense that the former cannot occur in the absence of the latter. The argument will proceed as follows. In §1, I will discuss a familiar distinction between transitive consciousness and intransitive consciousness, and argue that the former depends upon the latter. In §2, I will introduce a parallel distinction between two modes of self-consciousness, which I will call transitive selfconsciousness and intransitive self-consciousness. In §3, I will argue that the common reasons for claiming that consciousness is independent of self-consciousness apply only to transitive self-consciousness. And in §4, I will argue that when it comes to intransitive self-consciousness, it appears that no consciousness can occur in its absence. In that sense, consciousness is dependent upon intransitive selfconsciousness.

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selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
40
Top 10%
Top 10%
Top 10%
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