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Being a beast machine: the somatic basis of selfhood

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 14:50 authored by Anil SethAnil Seth, Manos Tsakiris
Modern psychology has long focused on the body as the basis of the self. Recently, predictive processing accounts of interoception (perception of the body ‘from within’) have become influential in accounting for experiences of body ownership and emotion. Here, we describe embodied selfhood in terms of ‘instrumental interoceptive inference’, which emphasises allostatic regulation and physiological integrity. We apply this approach to the distinctive phenomenology of embodied selfhood, accounting for its non-object-like character and subjective stability over time. Our perspective has implications for the development of selfhood, and illuminates longstanding debates about relations between life and mind, implying – contrary to Descartes – that experiences of embodied selfhood arise because of, and not in spite of, our nature as ‘beast machines’.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

ISSN

1364-6613

Publisher

Elsevier

Issue

11

Volume

22

Page range

969-981

Department affiliated with

  • Informatics Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics Publications
  • Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2018-08-29

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2019-09-14

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2018-08-28

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