Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-vpsfw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-19T03:04:22.308Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Subjectivity and the Elusiveness of the Self

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Robert J. Howell
Robert J. Howell*
Affiliation:
Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX75275, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

‘Where am I?’ This is something we might expect to hear from hapless explorers or academics with no sense of direction. If we can, we'll explain to our inquirer that he is east of East St. Louis and hope he can find his way from there. If he persists, insisting that he is not really lost, but only cannot find himself no matter how hard he looks, we might reasonably suspect that we are dealing with that peculiarly incorrigible academic explorer, the philosopher. When we hesitantly point to his body, we hear him explain, exasperated, ‘No, don't you get it? That's my body, but I’m looking for my self! And I cannot find it!’ At this point it is tempting to slip away, convinced that our philosophical friend is throttling himself with the noose of his own cleverness and is at risk of intellectual suicide by denying that he in fact has a self. Nevertheless, we shouldn't turn away so quickly: some pretty ingenious people from radically diverse schools of thought have endorsed the claim that the self ineluctably evades detection.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , September 2010 , pp. 459 - 483
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Armstrong, D.M. (1968). A Materialist Theory of Mind. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Bar-On, Dorit. (2004). Speaking my Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bermudez, Luis, Jose Marcel, Anthony and Eilan, Naomi eds. (1995). The Body and the Self. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Block, Ned. (1996). ‘Mental Paint and Mental Latex. Philosophical Issues 7. Enrique Villanueva, ed. Northridge, CA: Ridgeview.Google Scholar
Block, Ned. (1998) ‘Is Experience Just Representing?’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 58: 663–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Block, Ned Flanagan, Owen and Guzeldere, Guven eds. (1997). The Nature of Consciousness. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Bradley, F.H. (1893). Appearance and Reality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Brentano, Franz. (1973). Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Burge, Tyler. (1998). ‘Reason and the First Person.’ In Wright et al. (1998): 243-70.Google Scholar
Butchvarov, Panayot. (1979). Being Qua Being. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Butchvarov, Panayot. (1998). Skepticism about the External World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Chisholm, Roderick M. (1969). ‘On the Observability of the Self.’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 30: 7–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chisholm, Roderick M. (1976). Person and Object. LaSalle: Open Court.Google Scholar
De, Bary William, Theodore ed. (1969). The Buddhist Tradition in India, China and Japan. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Dretske, Fred. (1995). Naturalizing the Mind. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Eilan, Naomi. (1995). ‘The First-Person Perspective.’ Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society. 95: 51–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fernandez, Jordi. (2003). ‘Privileged Access Naturalized.’ The Philosophical Quarterly 53: 352–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fichte, J.G. (1982). The Science of Knowledge. Heath, Peter and Lachs, John eds. and trans. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fichte, J.G. (1985). The Vocation of Man. Chisholm, Roderick M. trans. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Gennaro, R. ed. (2004). Higher-Order Theories of Consciousness. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harman, Gilbert. (1990). ‘The Intrinsic Quality of Experience,’ Philosophical Perspectives 4: 31–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howell, Robert J. (2006). ‘Self-Knowledge and Self-Reference,’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 72: 44–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howell, Robert J. (2007a) ‘Immunity to Error and Subjectivity,’ Canadian Journal of Philosophy 37: 581–604.Google Scholar
Howell, Robert J. (2007b) ‘The Knowledge Argument and Objectivity,’ Philosophical Studies 135: 145–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hume, David. (1978). A Treatise of Human Nature. 2nd ed., text revised by Nidditch, P.G.. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. (1929). Critique of Pure Reason. Smith, Norman Kemp trans. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Kind, Amy. (2003). ‘What's So Transparent about Transparency?’ Philosophical Studies 115: 224–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kriegel, Uriah and Williford, K. eds. (2006). Consciousness and Self-Reference. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Kriegel, Uriah. (2006). ‘The Same Order Monitoring Theory of Consciousness’ in Kriegel and Williford (2006).Google Scholar
Kriegel, Uriah. (forthcoming). ‘Naturalizing Subjective Character’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.Google Scholar
Lewis, David. (1999). Papers in Metaphysics and Epistemology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, David and Langton, Rae. (1999). ‘Defining “Intrinsic”’ in Lewis (1999), 116-32.Google Scholar
Loar, Brian. (2003). ‘Transparent Experience and the Availability of Qualia.’ In Smith and Jokic (2003), 77-96.Google Scholar
Lycan, William G. (1997). ‘Consciousness as Internal Monitoring.’ In Block et al. (1997) 755-71.Google Scholar
MacDonald, Cynthia. (1999). ‘Shoemaker on Self-Knowledge and Inner-Sense.’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 59: 711–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marks, Charles (1980). Consciousness and the Unity of Mind. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Martin, M.G.F. (1995). ‘Bodily Awareness: A Sense of Ownership’ in Bermudez et al. (1995) 267-90.Google Scholar
Martin, M.G.F. (2002). ‘The Transparency of Experience.’ Mind and Language 17: 376–425.Google Scholar
Metzinger, Thomas. (2004). Being No One. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Moore, G.E. (1922a). Collected Papers. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Moore, G.E. (1922b). ‘The Refutation of Idealism.’ In Moore (1922a).Google Scholar
Moran, Richard. (2001). Authority and Estrangement. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Nagel, Thomas. (1971). ‘Brain Bisection and the Unity of Consciousness.’ Synthese 22: 396–413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peacocke, Christopher. (1983). Sense and Content. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Sartre, Jean-Paul. (1956). Being and Nothingness. Barnes, Hazel trans. New York: Gramercy Books.Google Scholar
Sartre, Jean-Paul. (1993). The Transcendence of the Ego. Williams, Forrest and Kirkpatrick, Robert trans. New York: Hill and Wang.Google Scholar
Shoemaker, Sydney. (1963). Self-Knowledge and Self-Identity. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Shoemaker, Sydney. (1996a). The First-Person Perspective and Other Essays. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shoemaker, Sydney. (1996b). ‘Introspection and the Self.’ In Shoemaker (1996a).Google Scholar
Siewert, Charles. (2001). ‘Self-Knowledge and Phenomenal Unity’ Nous 35: 542–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siewert, Charles. (2004). ‘Is Experience Transparent?’ Philosophical Studies 117: 15–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Quentin and Aleksander, Jokic. (2003). Consciousness: New Philosophical Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stern, David G. (1995). Wittgenstein on Mind and Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stoljar, Daniel. (forthcoming). ‘The Argument from Diaphanousness’ in Escurdia et al. Language, Mind and World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tye, Michael. (2002). Consciousness, Color and Content. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Strawson, P.F. (1959). Individuals. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Tye, Michael. (1995). Ten Problems of Consciousness. Cambridge: The MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tye, Michael. (2003). Consciousness and Persons. Cambridge: The MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Cleve, James. (1985). ‘Three Versions of the Bundle Theory,’ Philosophical Studies 47: 95–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Cleve, James. (1999). Problems from Kant. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Van Gulick, Robert. (2004). ‘Higher Order Global States’ in Gennaro (2004).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Gulick, Robert. (2006). ‘Mirror Mirror — Is that All?’ in Kriegel and Williford (2006).Google Scholar
Williams, Bernard. (1978). Descartes. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. (1974). Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Trans. D.F., Pears and McGuinness, B.F.. London: Routledge.Google Scholar