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Chapter 1 - Awareness and identification of self

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2011

JeeLoo Liu
Affiliation:
California State University, Fullerton
John Perry
Affiliation:
Stanford University, California
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Summary

Self-awareness and the self

It is a crucial aspect of everyday mental functioning that we are in some way aware of ourselves. But it is far from clear at first sight just what this self-awareness consists in, and indeed just what the self is that we are aware of.

It is possible to give an answer to the second question that is mundane and unproblematic. The self one is aware of in everyday life is simply the individual that walks, talks, sleeps, and eats; the self one is aware of is, to echo Aristotle’s provisional definition of the soul, the living, functioning creature.

Type
Chapter
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Consciousness and the Self
New Essays
, pp. 22 - 50
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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