Against Self-Representationalism
Against Self-Representationalism
This chapter argues against Uriah Kriegel’s “self-representational theory of consciousness,” which states that the structure of conscious states includes an element of self-reference. This self-referential or self- epresentational aspect of conscious mental states goes back to Aristotle and Franz Brentano, who argued that “every mental act includes within it a consciousness of itself. Therefore, every mental act, no matter how simple, has a double object, a primary and secondary object.” Three views are discussed in detail in this chapter: First, Brentano’s “pure self-referentialism,” which states that a conscious mental state is literally directed back at Itself, is criticized. Second, the chapter examines whether peripheral self-directed awareness accompanies all conscious states or not. Finally, responses are addressed to arguments presented in support of Kriegel’s view of self-representation.
Keywords: self-representational theory of consciousness, Uriah Kriegel, conscious mental states, Aristotle, Franz Brentano, self-directed awareness
MIT Press Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
