Summary
This chapter explores the nature of ordinary self-consciousness (OSC) and offers an analysis to identify its key components. Its main aim is to identify and look closely at the phenomenon. The chapter suggests that the phenomenon has a crucial role to play in explaining and understanding the nature of the self-conscious emotions of guilt, shame, pride and embarrassment. It distinguishes between OSC understood as a conscious mental attitude and OSC understood as a way of acting. It also helps identifying the particular character of OSC. Having tabled some ideas about the structure and dimensions involved in OSC, the chapter provides answers to questions about the relationship between OSC and self-conscious emotions. OSC is treated as a distinct self-conscious emotion, and may have a claim to being the core self-conscious emotion in relation to which the others can be better understood.
