more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
Two extreme views on the development of the self are 'internalist' and 'externalist'. The first starts with a baby's subjective experience, and increasing differentiation as self-consciousness develops. The externalist view requires language and society.
Gist of Idea
A sense of self begins either internally, or externally through language and society
Source
G Edelman / G Tononi (Consciousness: matter becomes imagination [2000], Ch.15)
Book Ref
Edelman,G/Tononi,G: 'Consciousness: how matter becomes imagination' [Penguin 2000], p.197
A Reaction
Edelman rightly warns against this simple dichotomy, but if I have to vote, it is for internalism. I take a sense of self as basic to any mind, even a slug's. What is a mind for, if not to look after the creature? Self makes sensation into mind.
| 5648 | For Hegel knowledge of self presupposes objects, and also a public and moral social world [Hegel, by Scruton] |
| 22788 | A human only become a somebody as a member of a social estate [Hegel] |
| 22792 | Individuals attain their right by discovering their self-consciousness in institutions [Hegel] |
| 22598 | The authentic self exists at the level of class, rather than the individual [Marx, by Dunt] |
| 20368 | There are no 'individual' persons; we are each the sum of humanity up to this moment [Nietzsche] |
| 8044 | Goffman sees the self as no more than a peg on which to hang roles we play [Goffman, by MacIntyre] |
| 7422 | A subject is a form which can change, in (say) political or sexual situations [Foucault] |
| 7386 | Selves are not soul-pearls, but artefacts of social processes [Dennett] |
| 18658 | The 'Kantian' self steps back from commitment to its social situation [Kymlicka] |
| 4939 | A sense of self begins either internally, or externally through language and society [Edelman/Tononi] |
| 10349 | To be considered 'an individual' is performed by a society [Kusch] |
| 5502 | Locke's intrinsic view of personal identity has been replaced by an externalist view [Martin/Barresi] |
| 20942 | Nazis think race predetermines the self [Bowie] |