Self-consciousness and nonconceptual content

Musholt, Kristina

doi:10.1007/s11098-011-9837-8

Cited by 13 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…While self-related thoughts are a paradigmatic example of self-consciousness, it is widely agreed that self-consciousness is not strictly limited to the cognitive domain. In particular, a number of authors have stressed the need to distinguish between the “narrative self,” congruent with narrative aspects of self-consciousness outlined in the previous section, and the “minimal” or “embodied” self (Damasio, 1999 ; Gallagher, 2000 ; Legrand and Ruby, 2009 ; Christoff et al, 2011 ; Musholt, 2013 ; Zahavi, 2014 ). For example, Gallagher defines the minimal self as “a consciousness of oneself as an immediate subject of experience, unextended in time” (Gallagher, 2000 , p. 15), by opposition with the temporal thickness of the narrative self-woven by autobiographical memories and self-projection to the future.…”

Section: Alterations Of Self-consciousness Induced By Meditation and mentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychedelics, Meditation, and Self-Consciousness

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In recent years, the scientific study of meditation and psychedelic drugs has seen remarkable developments. The increased focus on meditation in cognitive neuroscience has led to a cross-cultural classification of standard meditation styles validated by functional and structural neuroanatomical data. Meanwhile, the renaissance of psychedelic research has shed light on the neurophysiology of altered states of consciousness induced by classical psychedelics, such as psilocybin and LSD, whose effects are mainly mediated by agonism of serotonin receptors. Few attempts have been made at bridging these two domains of inquiry, despite intriguing evidence of overlap between the phenomenology and neurophysiology of meditation practice and psychedelic states. In particular, many contemplative traditions explicitly aim at dissolving the sense of self by eliciting altered states of consciousness through meditation, while classical psychedelics are known to produce significant disruptions of self-consciousness, a phenomenon known as drug-induced ego dissolution. In this article, we discuss available evidence regarding convergences and differences between phenomenological and neurophysiological data on meditation practice and psychedelic drug-induced states, with a particular emphasis on alterations of self-experience. While both meditation and psychedelics may disrupt self-consciousness and underlying neural processes, we emphasize that neither meditation nor psychedelic states can be conceived as simple, uniform categories. Moreover, we suggest that there are important phenomenological differences even between conscious states described as experiences of self-loss. As a result, we propose that self-consciousness may be best construed as a multidimensional construct, and that “self-loss,” far from being an unequivocal phenomenon, can take several forms. Indeed, various aspects of self-consciousness, including narrative aspects linked to autobiographical memory, self-related thoughts and mental time travel, and embodied aspects rooted in multisensory processes, may be differently affected by psychedelics and meditation practices. Finally, we consider long-term outcomes of experiences of self-loss induced by meditation and psychedelics on individual traits and prosocial behavior. We call for caution regarding the problematic conflation of temporary states of self-loss with “selflessness” as a behavioral or social trait, although there is preliminary evidence that correlations between short-term experiences of self-loss and long-term trait alterations may exist.

show abstract

Section: Alterations Of Self-consciousness Induced By Meditation and mentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychedelics, Meditation, and Self-Consciousness

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…While self-specifying processes are doubtlessly involved in processes of perception, action, cognition, and emotion at the subpersonal level, this does not imply that the self is represented in the content of experience at the personal level (and on my view the latter is required for genuine self-awareness; see Musholt, 2013 for detailed discussion). But setting aside this largely terminological issue, I agree with Legrand (2003, 2006, 2007a,b), Legrand and Ruby (2009), and Christoff et al (2011) that insofar as both the study of the subjectivity of conscious experience and of the ability to represent oneself in thought are important avenues of research, one should not unnecessarily restrict the cognitive neuroscience of the self to the latter alone.…”

Section: Being a Self Vs Being Self-awarementioning

confidence: 98%

“…Rather, precisely because an organism’s perception of the world is always from its own perspective, this fact itself can “drop out” of the content of conscious experience – the self can be thought of as an “unarticulated constituent” (Perry, 1998) of experience. That is to say that while perception contains implicitly self-related information (for instance, the objects in one’s environment are always presented in a certain distance and orientation from oneself), this does not mean that the self is part of the explicit representational content of experience (Musholt, 2013). The explicit representation of one’s own perspective only becomes important once an organism has an understanding of the perspective of others and wants to contrast its own perspective with that of others (Beckermann, 2003; Musholt, 2012).…”

Section: Being a Self Vs Being Self-awarementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For one thing, while the notion of possessing pre-reflective self-awareness is largely equivalent to the notion of “being a self” (i.e., being a subject of conscious experience), I prefer to reserve the term “self-awareness” for the ability to refer to oneself in thought, which, in turn, requires the ability to explicitly represent oneself. However, this issue can largely be regarded as a terminological matter for the purposes of this paper (for a detailed discussion, see Musholt, 2013). More importantly, though, the notion of reflective self-awareness is not quite the same as the notion of being aware of being a self (i.e., the ability to think about oneself), because while Legrand and others seem to think that reflective self-awareness (and thus explicit self-representation, or thinking about oneself) necessarily implies being aware of oneself “as object” (see in particular Legrand, 2007a), as I have argued above, one can think about oneself (and thus explicitly represent oneself) either “as subject” or as “object,” depending on whether the explicit self-representation is based on a first-person mode of presentation (i.e., a way of gaining information that is specific to the self), or on a third-person mode of presentation (i.e., a way of gaining information that is not specific to the self).…”

Section: Being a Self Vs Being Self-awarementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Likewise, as we have seen above, although there are implicitly self-specifying processes that form part of the cognitive mechanisms enabling the perception of and interaction with the environment, we cannot simply assume that the information contained in these processes is explicitly represented at the personal level. Rather, there are good reasons to think that in basic forms of perception and action the self is not explicitly represented (Musholt, 2013). Moreover, while the personal level is amenable to appeals to reason, the subpersonal level is not reasons-responsive.…”

Section: The Personal and The Subpersonal In Neuroimaging The Selfmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

A Philosophical Perspective on the Relation between Cortical Midline Structures and the Self

Musholt¹

2013

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In recent years there has been increasing evidence that an area in the brain called the cortical midline structures (CMSs) is implicated in what has been termed self-related processing. This article will discuss recent evidence for the relation between CMS and self-consciousness in light of several important philosophical distinctions. First, we should distinguish between being a self (i.e., being a subject of conscious experience) and being aware of being a self (i.e., being able to think about oneself as such). While the former consists in having a first-person perspective on the world, the latter requires the ability to explicitly represent one’s own perspective as such. Further, we should distinguish between being aware of oneself “as subject” and being aware of oneself “as object.” The focus of existing studies investigating the relation between CMS and self has been predominantly on the ability to think about oneself (and in particular thinking of oneself “as object”), while the more basic aspects involved in being a self have been neglected. However, it is important to widen the scope of the cognitive neuroscience to include the latter, not least because this might have important implications for a better understanding of disorders of the self, such as those involved in schizophrenia. In order to do so, cognitive neuroscience should work together with philosophy, including phenomenology. Second, we need to distinguish between personal and subpersonal level explanations. It will be argued that although it is important to respect this distinction, in principle, some subpersonal facts can enter into constitutive conditions of personal-level phenomena. However, in order for this to be possible, one needs both careful conceptual analysis and knowledge about relevant cognitive mechanisms.

show abstract

First-Person Perspective in Experience: Perspectival De Se Representation as an Explanation of the Delimitation Problem

Sebastián

2022

Erkenn

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Self-consciousness and nonconceptual content

Cited by 13 publications

References 22 publications

Psychedelics, Meditation, and Self-Consciousness

Psychedelics, Meditation, and Self-Consciousness

A Philosophical Perspective on the Relation between Cortical Midline Structures and the Self

First-Person Perspective in Experience: Perspectival De Se Representation as an Explanation of the Delimitation Problem

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About