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Single Idea 3468
[filed under theme 16. Persons / C. Self-Awareness / 3. Limits of Introspection
]
Full Idea
I cannot observe my own subjectivity.
Gist of Idea
I cannot observe my own subjectivity
Source
John Searle (The Rediscovery of the Mind [1992], Ch. 4.II)
Book Ref
Searle,John R.: 'The Rediscovery of the Mind' [MIT 1999], p.99
A Reaction
I'm not quite clear what Searle is complaining about. He knows very clearly that there is a subjective aspect to his life - so how does he know that fact? There must be something supporting this widely held belief.
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
|
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
|
'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
|
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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1354
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We cannot introspect states of anger or panic
[Ryle]
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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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5661
|
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
|
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
|
I'm not the final authority on my understanding of maths
[Maslin]
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