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Single Idea 7116
[filed under theme 16. Persons / C. Self-Awareness / 3. Limits of Introspection
]
Full Idea
There is no 'I' on the unreflected level. When I run after a tram, ...there is no I. There is a consciousness of the tram-needing-to-be-caught, and a non-positional consciousness of consciousness.
Gist of Idea
When we are unreflective (as when chasing a tram) there is no 'I'
Source
Jean-Paul Sartre (Transcendence of the Ego [1937], I (B))
Book Ref
Sartre,Jean-Paul: 'The Transcendence of the Ego' [Routledge 2004], p.13
A Reaction
Russell (Idea 5380) says exactly the opposite. My sympathies are more with Russell. I don't just focus on the tram, I focus on the relation between myself and the tram, and that includes my need to catch it, as well as my body.
Related Ideas
Idea 5380
In perceiving the sun, I am aware of sun sense-data, and of the perceiver of the data [Russell]
Idea 20074
We can keep Davidson's account of intentions in action, by further explaining prior intentions [Davidson, by Stout,R]
The
23 ideas
with the same theme
[what may be unknowable by introspection]:
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5886
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Like the eye, the soul has no power to see itself, but sees other things
[Cicero]
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1316
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Introspection always discovers perceptions, and never a Self without perceptions
[Hume]
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5551
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I have no cognition of myself as I am, but only as I appear to myself
[Kant]
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12115
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Introspection is pure illusion; we can obviously observe everything except ourselves
[Comte]
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24144
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A cognitive mechanism wanting to know itself is absurd!
[Nietzsche]
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2932
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'Know thyself' is impossible and ridiculous
[Nietzsche]
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7157
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We think each thought causes the next, unaware of the hidden struggle beneath
[Nietzsche]
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5689
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Freud and others have shown that we don't know our own beliefs, feelings, motive and attitudes
[Freud, by Shoemaker]
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20429
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Most of us are too close to our own motives to understand them
[Fry]
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5380
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In perceiving the sun, I am aware of sun sense-data, and of the perceiver of the data
[Russell]
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7116
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When we are unreflective (as when chasing a tram) there is no 'I'
[Sartre]
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7124
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The Ego never appears except when we are not looking for it
[Sartre]
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1353
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Reporting on myself has the same problems as reporting on you
[Ryle]
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1354
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We cannot introspect states of anger or panic
[Ryle]
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5661
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We identify experiences by their owners, so we can't define owners by their experiences
[Ayer]
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15815
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Sartre says the ego is 'opaque'; I prefer to say that it is 'transparent'
[Chisholm]
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3468
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I cannot observe my own subjectivity
[Searle]
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3363
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We often can't decide what emotion, or even sensation, we are experiencing
[Kim]
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3412
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How do we distinguish our anger from embarrassment?
[Kim]
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3102
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Why don't we experience or remember going to sleep at night?
[Magee]
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5674
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We can't introspect ourselves as objects, because that would involve possible error
[Cassam]
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6671
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It seems impossible to get generally applicable mental concepts from self-observation
[Lowe]
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3518
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I'm not the final authority on my understanding of maths
[Maslin]
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