Descartes was onto something, l I am not indubitably certain, in consciousness, that I exist and that I am thinking such-and-such. But for so long as I am conscious, consciously thinking such-and-such, I am aware that I am so thinking. And that awareness - of my experience and so of myself- defines consciousness. Yet modern philosophy was soon beset with puzzles about the self, self-awareness, and inner awareness of experience. Looking into himself, Hume said he could find no self but only a stream of 'perceptions'. Husserl followed suit, but later said he'd found the pure ego - after he learned not to be misled by 'corrupt" metaphysics. Sartre concluded the ego appears only when one looks for it, and then only out of the corner of the eye, at the 'horizon', when one is not looking at it. Woody Alien surmised that one must feign indifference and then run quickly to the other end of the room in hopes of catching a glimpse of oneself. Some philosophers even suggested a paradox in self-awareness, or in the very notion of ego: one cannot grasp oneself qua subject or ego, because grasping oneself makes one an object, not a subject, of one's awareness. But all these philosophers were looking for the self and hence self-awareness in the wrong place. For selfawareness is already a part of (normal human) consciousness itself- as Descartes in some way saw. (Smith 1986, 149)
References
Smith, David W. 1986. “The structure of (self-) consciousness.” Topoi 5 (2): 149–56. doi:10.1007/BF00139228.
9
Descartes was onto something, l I am not indubitably certain, in consciousness, that I exist and that I am thinking such-and-such. But for so long as I am conscious, consciously thinking such-and-such, I am aware that I am so thinking. And that awareness - of my experience and so of myself- defines consciousness. Yet modern philosophy was soon beset with puzzles about the self, self-awareness, and inner awareness of experience. Looking into himself, Hume said he could find no self but only a stream of 'perceptions'. Husserl followed suit, but later said he'd found the pure ego - after he learned not to be misled by 'corrupt" metaphysics. Sartre concluded the ego appears only when one looks for it, and then only out of the corner of the eye, at the 'horizon', when one is not looking at it. Woody Alien surmised that one must feign indifference and then run quickly to the other end of the room in hopes of catching a glimpse of oneself. Some philosophers even suggested a paradox in self-awareness, or in the very notion of ego: one cannot grasp oneself qua subject or ego, because grasping oneself makes one an object, not a subject, of one's awareness. But all these philosophers were looking for the self and hence self-awareness in the wrong place. For selfawareness is already a part of (normal human) consciousness itself- as Descartes in some way saw. (Smith 1986, 149)
References
Smith, David W. 1986. “The structure of (self-) consciousness.” Topoi 5 (2): 149–56. doi:10.1007/BF00139228.