The Threshold of Self-Consciousness Stephane Joseph Savanah BSc(Hons), DipEd, PGDipDataProc, PGDipPhil ARC Centre of Excellence for Cognition and its Disorders Department of Cognitive Science Macquarie University Sydney, Australia June 2012 Table of Contents Preface ................................................................................................................................................... vii Statement of Candidate .......................................................................................................................... ix Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................. x Part 1: The Nature of Self-Consciousness Chapter 1: The Self and Self-Consciousness ....................................................................................... 2 1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 2 Some Terminological Points ........................................................................................................... 3 1.2 Self-Consciousness and the Self-Concept ..................................................................................... 4 1.3 Conceptions of the Self ................................................................................................................. 5 The Physically Extended Self ......................................................................................................... 6 The Temporally Extended Self ....................................................................................................... 8 The Social Self ................................................................................................................................ 8 The Agentive Self............................................................................................................................ 9 The Metacognitive Self ................................................................................................................. 10 A Fundamental Concept of the Self .............................................................................................. 11 1.4 Self-Consciousness Research Paradigms .................................................................................... 11 Mirror Self-Recognition ................................................................................................................ 12 Theory of Mind ............................................................................................................................. 13 Episodic Memory .......................................................................................................................... 16 Self-Evaluative Emotions .............................................................................................................. 17 Metacognition ............................................................................................................................... 17 1.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 18 Chapter 2: Introspection and the Fundamental Dichotomy ........................................................... 19 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 19 The Fundamental Dichotomy ........................................................................................................ 21 2.2 Access to the Self ........................................................................................................................ 23 Perceptual Model versus Privileged Access .................................................................................. 23 Introspection .................................................................................................................................. 25 Self-Givenness .............................................................................................................................. 27 Introspection and Concept Possession .......................................................................................... 31 ii 2.3 The Correspondence Thesis ........................................................................................................ 32 Transitive versus Intransitive Self-Consciousness ....................................................................... 33 Self-as-Subject versus Self-as-Object ........................................................................................... 35 Unitary vs Non-Unitary Self ......................................................................................................... 37 Multiple Drafts Model .................................................................................................................. 40 Higher Order Thought .................................................................................................................. 41 Immunity to Error through Misidentification (IEM) and Reference Failure ................................ 43 Elusiveness Thesis ........................................................................................................................ 44 The Essential Indexical ................................................................................................................. 46 2.4 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 51 Chapter 3: The Concept Possession Hypothesis of Self-Consciousness ......................................... 53 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 53 3.2 A Yardstick for Self-Consciousness ........................................................................................... 55 Three Levels of Development....................................................................................................... 56 3.3 Concepts and Non-Conceptual Content ...................................................................................... 61 Non-Conceptual Mental Content .................................................................................................. 63 The Conceptual Constraint ........................................................................................................... 64 Arguments against the Conceptual Constraint for Perceptual States ............................................ 66 State vs. Content Non-Conceptualism .......................................................................................... 68 3.4 Self, the Fundamental Concept ................................................................................................... 69 An Analogy with Perception ........................................................................................................ 70 The Web of Concepts ................................................................................................................... 71 Bermũdez and the Paradox of Self-Consciousness ....................................................................... 78 3.5 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 80 Chapter 4: Evidence of Concept Possession ..................................................................................... 82 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 82 4.2 The Language Question .............................................................................................................. 83 4.3 Positive Indications of Concept Possession ................................................................................ 85 Identification of a Specific Individual Concept Grasped by the Subject ...................................... 85 Thoughts in Propositional Form ................................................................................................... 86 Rationality..................................................................................................................................... 87 Symbol-Mindedness ..................................................................................................................... 91 4.4 The Standard of Evidence ........................................................................................................... 93 iii Programmatic Behaviour ............................................................................................................... 94 Associatively Learned Responses to Stimuli ................................................................................ 96 ‘Innate’ (Hard-Wired Species-Specific) Behaviour ...................................................................... 96 A Simple Test Case: Tool Use ...................................................................................................... 97 4.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 98 Part 2: Empirical Studies of Self-Consciousness Chapter 5: Mirror Self Recognition ...............................................................................................