Oxford University Press (2009)
Authors |
|
Abstract |
What is the self? Does it exist? If it does exist, what is it like? It's not clear that we even know what we're asking about when we ask these large, metaphysical questions. The idea of the self comes very naturally to us, and it seems rather important, but it's also extremely puzzling. As for the word "self"--it's been taken in so many different ways that it seems that you can mean more or less what you like by it and come up with almost any answer. Galen Strawson proposes to approach the (seeming) problem of the self by starting from the thing that makes it seem there is a problem in the first place: our experience of the self, our experience of having or being a self, a hidden, inner mental presence or locus of consciousness. He argues that we should consider the phenomenology (experience) of the self before we attempt its metaphysics (its existence and nature). And when we have considered what it's like for human beings (assuming we can generalize about ourselves), we need to consider what it might be like for other possible creatures: what's the very least that might count as experience of oneself as a self? This, he proposes, will give us a good idea of what we ought to be looking for when we go on to ask whether there is such a thing-an idea worth following wherever it leads. It leads Strawson to conclude that selves, inner subjects of experience, do indeed exist. But they bear little resemblance to traditional conceptions of the self
|
Keywords | Self (Philosophy Self Ontology Phenomenology Metaphysics |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
Reprint years | 2011 |
Buy this book | $37.95 from Amazon $41.83 used Amazon page |
Call number | BD450.S7775 2009 |
ISBN(s) | 0198250061 9780198250067 9780199693108 0199693102 |
Options |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Download options

Introduction
This introductory chapter begins by describing the eight parts of the book. It then explores the meaning of ‘I’ and the ‘self’. It argues for the transience view of the self — that there are many short-lived or transient selves, if there are any at all. It further argues that selves exist,... see more
Phenomenology: The Local Question
This chapter proposes that if one wants to enquire into the existence and nature of the self (Is there such a thing? What is it like if it exists?), then it's wise, and perhaps necessary, to start with an investigation of the experience of there being such a thing. One should start with an... see more
Phenomenology and Metaphysics: Self‐Experience and Self‐Consciousness
This chapter takes up the proposal about the minimal form of self-experience in order to consider the relation between self-experience and self-consciousness. Does self-consciousness require or presuppose self-experience? It presents the case for answering No, while acknowledging that the ... see more
References found in this work BETA
No references found.
Citations of this work BETA
Panpsychism and Causation: A New Argument} and a Solution to the Combination Problem.Hedda Hassel Mørch - 2014 - Dissertation, Oslo
The Two Selves: Their Metaphysical Commitments and Functional Independence.Stan Klein - 2014 - Oxford University Press.
Toward an Explanatory Framework for Mental Ownership.Timothy Lane - 2012 - Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 11 (2):251-286.
The Feeling of Personal Ownership of One’s Mental States: A Conceptual Argument and Empirical Evidence for an Essential, but Underappreciated, Mechanism of Mind.Stan Klein - 2015 - Psychology of Consciousness: Research, Practice, and Theory 2 (4):355-376.
The Self Shows Up in Experience.Matt Duncan - 2019 - Review of Philosophy and Psychology 10 (2):299-318.
View all 56 citations / Add more citations
Similar books and articles
Phenomenology and the Metaphysics of Presence: An Essay in the Philosophy of Edmund Husserl.Wolfgang Walter Fuchs - 1976 - M. Nijhoff.
Ontological Phenomenology.David Woodruff Smith - 2000 - In The Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy. pp. 243-251.
Book Review. Selves: An Essay in Revisionary Metaphysics. Galen Strawson. [REVIEW]Sydney Shoemaker - 2009 - Notre Dame Philosophical Review 2009.
Intentionality and Experience: Terminological Preliminaries.Galen Strawson - 2005 - In David Woodruff Smith & Amie L. Thomasson (eds.), Phenomenology and Philosophy of Mind. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 41--66.
Analytics
Added to PP index
2009-09-15
Total views
158 ( #62,113 of 2,420,778 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
8 ( #87,844 of 2,420,778 )
2009-09-15
Total views
158 ( #62,113 of 2,420,778 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
8 ( #87,844 of 2,420,778 )
How can I increase my downloads?
Downloads