Self-Consciousness and Intersubjectivity: Exploring the role of the awareness of others in the possibility and development of self-consciousness

自我意识与主体间性：探索他人意识在自我意识的可能性和发展中的作用

• 批准号: 2589573
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2589573
• 关键词: Self; Consciousness; Intersubjectivity; Exploring; role

The broader aim of this project is to investigate whether the awareness of others is a requirement for the very possibility of self-consciousness. This question is important as it bears implications on our existence as individuals and social beings. Exploring this issue would help us understand more about how we experience ourselves and how we relate to others. There are two dimensions to this question that I will be addressing:1) The empirical question of whether the awareness of others constitutes a factor in the development of self-consciousness.2) The philosophical question of whether the awareness of others is a necessary and/ or sufficient condition for the conceivability and epistemic possibility of self-consciousness.These two questions have been primarily addressed as independent from one another. In my project I aim to reverse this tradition by showing that these two questions are interconnected and must be ultimately answered together. Regarding the developmental issue, there is widespread agreement that the development of self-consciousness is mediated by early interpersonal interactions and therefore, social in nature. This conclusion is supported by growing empirical evidence from developmental psychology and cognitive science. With respect to the second question, the picture looks much different. There is a long philosophical tradition attributable to Descartes of assigning priority and epistemic privilege to the first-person. Self-consciousness is traditionally conceptualized as opposed to and independent from the consciousness of others. The primacy of the first-person constitutes an operating assumption behind many accounts of interpersonal understanding.One pressing issue that I intend to address is whether there is a tension between the developmental story about the social roots of the self and the traditional Cartesian view on the primacy of self-consciousness. Can the answers to these two questions diverge or is there any significant interconnection between the developmental and theoretical issue? I anticipate that two questions cannot be addressed independently from one another. So, the initial part of my project will be devolved to make the case for this: showing that there is an interdependence between the conditions of possibility and the conditions of development of self-consciousness. This in turn would amount to a refutation of the Cartesian picture of selfhood.I believe the main import of this project is to provide a new direction to both philosophical and empirical research on intersubjectivity and social cognition. In fact, the philosophical issue of other minds has been traditionally framed as the problem of bridging the gap between self-enclosed subjectivities. If, however, the other is already present in self-consciousness, we would have reasons to rethink the very nature of our knowledge and experience of others. This could also motivate and provide conceptual foundations for further empirical studies on the relation between the development of social skills and the emergence of a sense of identity. My research project could also find interesting applications in psychopathology, especially disorders in the autism spectrum which might be analysed in terms of a disturbed development of this social self-consciousness.

该项目的更广泛的目的是研究他人的意识是否是对自我意识的可能性的要求。这个问题很重要，因为它对我们作为个人和社会生物的存在产生了影响。探索这个问题将有助于我们更多地了解我们如何体验自己以及如何与他人建立联系。我将要解决这个问题有两个方面：1）关于他人意识的经验问题是否构成了自我意识发展的一个因素。2）哲学问题，即对他人意识的认识是否是必要的和/或有足够的条件，可以自我意识的想法和认知可能性。这两个问题主要是彼此独立的。在我的项目中，我的目标是通过表明这两个问题相互联系，并且必须最终回答，以扭转这一传统。关于发展问题，人们普遍同意的是，自我意识的发展是由早期的人际交往，因此是社会性质的。发展心理学和认知科学的经验证据越来越多地支持了这一结论。关于第二个问题，图片看起来有很大不同。有一个悠久的哲学传统，归因于将优先权和认识论特权分配给第一人称的探索。传统上，自我意识是被概念化的，而不是与他人的意识相反。第一人称的首要地位构成了许多人际理解的叙述背后的一个操作假设。我打算解决的一个紧迫问题是，关于自我社会根源的发展故事与传统的笛卡尔观点之间是否存在紧张关系自我意识的首要地位。这两个问题的答案是否可以分歧，或者在发展和理论问题之间是否存在任何显着的互连？我预计不能彼此独立解决两个问题。因此，我的项目的最初部分将被放置为为此提供理由：表明可能性条件与自我意识的发展条件之间存在相互依存关系。反过来，这将等同于笛卡尔的自我形象。我认为该项目的主要进口是为哲学和实证研究提供有关主体间性和社会认知的新方向。实际上，传统上，其他思想的哲学问题是弥合自我封闭的主观性之间差距的问题。但是，如果另一个已经存在于自我意识中，我们将有理由重新考虑他人知识和经验的本质。这也可以激励并为进一步的实证研究激励并为社交技能发展与身份意识的出现之间的关系进行进一步的实证研究。我的研究项目还可以在心理病理学中找到有趣的应用，尤其是自闭症谱系中的疾病，这可能会因这种社会自我意识的干扰发展而进行分析。