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The self: naturalism, consciousness, and the first-person stance

book
posted on 2023-06-08, 00:46 authored by Jonardon Ganeri
What is it to occupy a first-person stance? Is the first-personal idea one has of oneself in conflict with the idea of oneself as a physical being? How, if there is a conflict, is it to be resolved? In this book a new way to address those questions, drawing inspiration from theories about the self in first millennial India, is formulated. These philosophers do not regard the first-person stance as in conflict with the natural—their idea of nature not that of scientific naturalism but rather a liberal naturalism non-exclusive of the normative. A wide range of ideas are explored: reflexive self-representation, mental files, and quasi-subject analyses of subjective consciousness; the theory of emergence as transformation; embodiment and the idea of a bodily self; the centrality of the emotions to the unity of self. Buddhism's claim that there is no self too readily assumes an account of what a self must be. This book argues instead that the self is a negotiation between self-presentation and normative avowal, a transaction grounded in unconscious mind. Immersion, participation, and coordination are jointly constitutive of self, the first-person stance at once lived, engaged, and underwritten. And all is in harmony with the idea of the natural.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Pages

392.0

Place of publication

Oxford

ISBN

9780199652365

Department affiliated with

  • Philosophy Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-05-09

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