Bodily self-knowledge – core concepts

Bodily self-knowledge: core problem

  • Self-knowledge about the body is notoriously hard despite physical proximity, due to issues of access and authority.

Absent and Disappearing Body

  • Leder (1990): the body recedes from direct experience even though it grounds all experiences; pain calls the body to presence.
  • Key distinction: Objectivity vs Subjectivity.
  • Objectivity: independent of us; factual, shared, verifiable, and repeatable.
  • Subjectivity: based on our thoughts, beliefs, desires, and judgments.

Objectivity vs Subjectivity

  • Objectivity describes the body as an external, measurable object.
  • Subjectivity describes internal, personal experience of the body.

Modes of Awareness

  • The body as a physical object allows third-person access: we inspect, observe, and measure it.
  • Question: is there something limiting or wrong with this access?

Internal (First-Person) Awareness

  • Inside awareness: first-person forms of bodily awareness.
  • Systems operating within the body organize movements; can be conscious (knowing where the hand is) or pre-conscious (body moves without conscious awareness).

Proprioception

  • Proprioception is the sense of balance, position, and muscular tension provided by receptors in muscles, joints, tendons, and the inner ear.

Personal Identity: Is this me?

  • Puzzle of personal identity: what makes the same person persist over time?
  • Bodily self-identity questions: "Is this me?"
  • Quote (James):
    • "The sense of personal identity is not then, this mere synthetic form essential to all thought. It is the sense of sameness perceived by thought and predicated of things thought-about. These things are a present self and a self of yesterday."

Objectivism vs Subjective Body and Self-Perception

  • Objectivist descriptions of the body may diverge from subjective experience of how one feels.
  • Misaligned expectations: what the body should look like vs how it is felt.
  • Consequences: failure to align can affect self-perception; examples include anorexia nervosa and cosmetic surgery.

Implications

  • These perspectives influence how we understand and value ourselves and others.

References

  • Bermúdez, José L. “Bodily Awareness and Self-Consciousness.” The Oxford Handbook of the Self, Online edition, Oxford Academic, 201.
  • Bowden, Hannah. "A Phenomenological Study of Anorexia Nervosa." Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology 19, no. 3 (2012): 227-241.
  • James, William. The Principles of Psychology. Dover Publications, 1950.
  • Leder, Drew. The Absent Body. The University of Chicago Press, 1990.
  • Macquarrie, John. “Becoming.” In In Search of Humanity: A Theological and Philosophical Approach. Xpress Reprints, 1993: 1-9.