The nature and reality of self is a subject of increasing prominence among Western philosophers of mind and cognitive scientists. It has also been central to Indian and Tibetan philosophical traditions for over two thousand years. It is time to bring the rich resources of these traditions into the contemporary debate about the nature of self. This volume is the first of its kind. Leading philosophical scholars of the Indian and Tibetan traditions join with leading Western philosophers of mind and phenomenologists to explore issues about consciousness and selfhood from these multiple perspectives. Self, No Self? is not a collection of historical or comparative essays. It takes problem-solving and conceptual and phenomenological analysis as central to philosophy. The essays mobilize the argumentative resources of diverse philosophical traditions to address issues about the self in the context of contemporary philosophy and cognitive science. Self, No Self? will be essential reading for philosophers and cognitive scientists interested in the nature of the self and consciousness, and will offer a valuable way into the subject for students.
Self, No Self? : Perspectives from Analytical, Phenomenological, and Indian Traditions, Mark Siderits (Editor), Evan Thompson (Editor), Dan Zahavi (Editor), Oxford University Press, Hardcover, 337 pages, $65.00
Evan Thompson is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. He received his B.A. from Amherst College in Asian Studies and his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Toronto. He is the author of Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind (Harvard University Press, 2007) and Colour Vision: A Study in Cognitive Science and the Philosophy of Perception (Routledge Press, 1995). He is also co-author of The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience (MIT Press, 1991).
Dan Zahavi is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Subjectivity Research at the University of Copenhagen. He obtained his Ph.D. from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in 1994 and his Dr.phil. (Habilitation) from University of Copenhagen in 1999. He was elected member of Institut International de Philosophie in 2001 and of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters in 2007. He has served as president of the Nordic Society for Phenomenology in the years 2001-2007, and is currently co-editor in chief of the journal Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences. In his systematic work, Zahavi has mainly been investigating the nature of selfhood, self-consciousness and intersubjectivity.
Notes on Contributors ix
Introduction by Dan Zahavi I
1. The Who and the How of Experience by Joel W. Krueger 27
2. The Experiential Self: Objections and Clarifications by Dan Zahavi 56
3. Nirvana and Ownerless Consciousness by Miri Albahari 79
4. Self and Subjectivity: A Middle Way Approach by Georges Dreyfus 114
5. Self.. No-Self? Memory and Reflexive Awareness by Evan Thompson 157
6. Subjectivity, Selfhood and the Use of the Word I by Jonardon Ganeri 176
7. I Am. of the Nature of Seeing': Phenomenological Reflections on the Indian Notion of Witness-Consciousness by Wolfgang Fasching 193
8. Situating the Elusive Self of Advaita Vedanta by Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad 217
9. Enacting the Self: Buddhist and Enactivist Approaches to the Emergence of the Self by Matthew MacKenzie 239
10. Radical Self-Awareness by Galen Strawson 274
11. Buddhas as Zombies: A Buddhist Reduction of Subjectivity by Mark Siderits 308
Index 333
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