I discuss Descartes’ metaphysics of selfhood, and relevant parts of contemporary philosophy regarding the first person. My two main concerns are the controversy that surrounds Descartes’ conception of conscientia, mistranslated as ‘consciousness’, and his conception of selfhood and its essential connection to conscientia. ‘I’-thoughts give rise to the most challenging philosophical questions. An answer to the questions concerning the peculiarities of the first person, self-identification and self-ascription, is to be found in Descartes’ notion of conscientia. His conception of selfhood insightfully informs his conception of personhood. I offer a unified account of selfhood, conscientia, the first person, and personhood anchored in the self’s authority of reason and autonomy of freedom.
University of Oxford, United Kingdom - ORCID: 0000-0002-4088-7318
Chapter Title
Descartes on Selfhood, Conscientia, the First Person and Beyond
Authors
Andrea Christofidou
Language
English
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0169-8.03
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2023
Copyright Information
© 2023 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Book Title
Reading Descartes
Book Subtitle
Consciousness, Body, and Reasoning
Editors
Andrea Strazzoni, Marco Sgarbi
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
206
Publication Year
2023
Copyright Information
© 2023 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0169-8
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0168-1
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0169-8
eISBN (epub)
979-12-215-0170-4
Series Title
Knowledge and its Histories