Consciousness and self awareness .1. Consciousness(1), consciousness(2), and consciousness(3)

Journal/Book: J Mind Behav. 1997; 18: PO Box 522, Village Station, New York, NY 10014. Inst Mind Behavior Inc. 53-74.

Abstract: Published in two parts, the present article addresses whether self-awareness is necessarily involved in each of the six kinds of consciousness that The Oxford English Dictionary identifies under the word consciousness. Pare I inquires into how, if at all, self-awareness enters consciousness(1): a cognitive relation between people in which they have joint and mutual cognizance; consciousness(2): a psychological process of conceiving of oneself in certain sorts of respects on a firsthand evidentiary basis; and consciousness(3): being occurrently aware of anything at all, including nonexistent particulars. An instance of consciousness(1) may or may nor have a reflexive object, but it will perforce include both inner awareness and awareness of oneself as an object of the other's awareness. Consciousness(2) requires self-awareness in the forms of (a) witnessing or having witnessed potential evidence about oneself, (b) inner awareness of this witnessing when it occurred, (c) inner awareness and self-awareness as involved in (if necessary) remembering having witnessed that evidence, (d) occurrent awareness of features of one's character or personality, and (e) bringing self-witnessed evidence to bear in judging of the latter. In contrast, consciousness(3), which in a particular instance may be an occurrent self-awareness, need not involve any self-awareness at all.

Note: Article Natsoulas T, Univ Calif Davis, Dept Psychol, Davis,CA 95616 USA

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