The Phenomenology of Self-Awareness and the Nature of Conscious Subjects

This volume explores the connections between the phenomenology of self-awareness and the metaphysical nature of subjects of experience, bringing together two important research areas in contemporary philosophy of mind into fruitful engagement with one another.

The phenomenology of self-awareness concerns what it is like to be aware of oneself in various conscious experiences such as perceiving, recollecting, experiencing agency, or emotions. The metaphysical nature of subjects of experience raises questions concerning whether subjects are physical or non-physical entities, whether they are substances or bundles of properties, and what it is for subjects to have experiences. The ten original essays in this volume are grouped into thematic sections covering the following topics: the nature of self-awareness and its relation to conscious experience, the metaphysical nature of the subject of experience, and whether self-awareness can reveal anything about the metaphysical nature of the subject. Each essay is accompanied by comments from another contributor to the volume and a response from the author.

The Phenomenology of Self-Awareness and the Nature of Conscious Subjects will appeal to researchers and advanced students working in analytic philosophy of mind.

Julien Bugnon is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher in the project ＂Essential Indexicality and Thoughts about Experience＂ (jointly funded by the French National Research Agency and the Swiss National Science Foundation). His research interests lie in philosophy of mind, phenomenology, and epistemology, with a focus on consciousness--particularly its relation to values, introspection, self-knowledge, and artificial intelligence.

Martine Nida-Rümelin is professor of philosophy at the University of Fribourg. Her published work focusses on phenomenal consciousness, the identity of conscious subjects across time and possible worlds, the phenomenology of self-awareness, and the capacity of conscious subjects to engage in active behaviour. An account of what it is to be an experiencing being which integrates these different topics is elaborated in her book Conscious Individuals (in preparation).

Donncahdh O’Conaill is an independent researcher whose works focuses on philosophy of mind and in metaphysics. He has written articles including ’Subjecthood Transparency’ (Analysis), ’Subjectivity and Non-Objectifying Awareness’ (Review of Philosophy & Psychology), ’Subjectivity and Mineness’ (Erkenntnis) and ’The Identity of Experiences and the Identity of the Subject’ (Philosophical Studies).