Self-consciousness


We become self-conscious through self-observation; by making descriptions of ourselves (representations), and by interacting with our descriptions we can describe ourselves, describing ourselves in an endless recursive process. (BC 17)

Furthermore: if such an observer through orienting behavior can orient himself towards himself, and then generate communicative descriptions that orient him towards his description of this self-orientation, he can, by doing so recursively, describe himself describing himself . . . . endlessly. Thus discourse through communicative description originates the apparent paradox of self-description: self-consciousness, a new domain of interactions. (BC 43)


This page was last updated on June 26, 1996, by Rob Sable.