The bodily self: selected essays on self-consciousness

313 Pages·2018·3.064 MB·English

by  Bermúdez, José Luis

The Bodily Self

The Bodily Self
Selected Essays on Self-Consciousness
José Luis Bermúdez
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2018 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any
electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information
storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.
This book was set in ITC Stone Sans Std and ITC Stone Serif Std by Toppan Best-set
Premedia Limited. Printed and bound in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bermúdez, José Luis, author.
Title: The bodily self : selected essays / José Luis Bermúdez.
Description: Cambridge, MA : MIT Press, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017026383 | ISBN 9780262037501 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Self (Philosophy) | Self-consciousness (Awareness) | Mind and body.
Classification: LCC BD438.5 .B465 2018 | DDC 128/.6--dc23 LC record available at
https://lccn.loc.gov/2017026383
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: Understanding the Bodily Self 1
1 Nonconceptual Self-Consciousness and Cognitive Science 27
2 Ecological Perception and the Notion of a Nonconceptual Point of
View 53
3 The Sources of Self-Consciousness 77
4 The Elusiveness Thesis, Immunity to Error through Misidentification,
and Privileged Access 97
5 The Phenomenology of Bodily Awareness 125
6 Bodily Awareness and Self-Consciousness 155
7 Bodily Ownership, Bodily Awareness, and Knowledge without
Observation 183
8 Ownership and the Space of the Body 203
9 Bodily Ownership, Psychological Ownership, and
Psychopathology 233
10 The Bodily Self, Commonsense Psychology, and the Springs of
Action 257
Afterword: Looking Ahead 289
Index 297

Preface and Acknowledgments
Preface and Acknowledgments
Preface and Acknowledgments
© Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyAll Rights Reserved
I have encountered many collections of previously published essays where
authors report in the preface that they have successfully resisted the temp-
tation to revise and update the work of their earlier selves. I admire their
fortitude, but sadly have been unable to emulate it. Almost all of the essays
that follow have been edited and reworked, some extensively so.
I have made stylistic changes throughout, both to improve readability
and to standardize punctuation and spelling to the US model. I have also
added cross-referencing notes and, where appropriate, updated references,
particularly to the scientific literature. Some expository sections have been
rewritten to avoid duplication and overlap. And in a few places, which I
will not identify, weak arguments have been replaced with stronger ones
(or so I hope).
Two essays have received a much more drastic treatment. Chapter 7
(“Bodily Ownership, Bodily Awareness, and Knowledge without Observa-
tion”) was originally published in Analysis, a journal that adheres to envi-
able standards of concision. On rereading the essay, however, I realized that
there is a fine line between being concise and being cryptic. Accordingly,
I substantially expanded this essay, which has nearly doubled in length.
Chapter 10 (“The Thinking Self, Commonsense Psychology, and the
Springs of Action”) appears here for the first time. Or more accurately, the
title is here making its first appearance. The essay itself combines and devel-
ops material from two previously published papers, one of which (“The
Domain of Folk Psychology,” 2003) was published in a volume of lectures
delivered at the Royal Institute of Philosophy, while the other (“Arguing for
Eliminativism,” 2005) appeared in a festschrift for Paul Churchland. Nei-
ther essay quite made the grade on its own, but the amalgam does, I hope,
add value to this collection.
viii Preface and Acknowledgments
Each of the essays contains its own acknowledgments and thanks, all of
which of course still stand. In addition, I would particularly like to record
my debt to Philip Laughlin at the MIT Press for initially supporting this
project and then for being a model editor. Thanks also to Judy Feldmann
for copyediting and steering the book through the production process. It
has been a pleasure to work again with the MIT Press, nearly twenty-five
years after my first project with them.