Is Self-Consciousness Consciousness of One’s Self?

Abstract

The title of this essay calls into question an equivalence that has been generally taken for granted ever since its terms became available with the advent of modern philosophy. The assumed equivalence holds between self-consciousness, on the one hand, and consciousness of one’s self, on the other hand, where one’s self is by definition that in virtue of which one enjoys self-consciousness. It is built in modern philosophy of mind. I shall call it the Canonical Equivalence (hereafter CE). Let us have it before our eyes: