Topics Consciousness

Question I was wondering "Where in my body does my sense of self seem to be centred?" For me, the answer was "In my skull behind where my eyes are." That is, I associate myself with where my primary senses are, i.e. the eyes, ears, nose and mouth. Assuming this is a normal reaction, does a person who is lacking one or more senses (e.g. blind from birth) subjectively feel centred in another part of their body? If the answer is yes, does this give any insight into the nature of self-awareness?

Accepted:
January 28, 2006

Comments

I think that it is common to associate one's sense of oneself with a specific bodily location. I recall thinking (when I was a young child) that my thoughts were located in my throat right behind my tongue. I now believe that my thoughts are not located anywhere--not in my brain, not in a mind. There is just thinking, constituted by neural activity. The neural activity constitutes the thinking, but is not identical to it. It is an essential property of your thinking that good jobs are scarce (say) that it is about jobs. But it is difficult to see how being about jobs could be located in a definite place in your brain. Self-awareness, too, is a matter of thinking. Your being aware that you are thinking that you will probably get a good job is an instance of self-awarness. It is no more located anywhere than is your thinking that good jobs are scarce.

You can be a materialist and still doubt that all phenomena are localizable. Suppose that you play poker on the internet; where is the game? Nowhere, I think.

In short, someone blind from birth may or may not subjectively feel centred in some other part of her body instead of behind her eyes. But I am doubtful that knowing this would give insight into the nature of self-awareness.