Contained in:
Book Chapter

Descartes on Selfhood, Conscientia, the First Person and Beyond

  • Andrea Christofidou

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.

  • Keywords:
  • René Descartes,
  • conscientia,
  • first person,
  • selfhood,
  • personhood,
  • freedom,
+ Show More

Andrea Christofidou

University of Oxford, United Kingdom - ORCID: 0000-0002-4088-7318

  1. Austin, John L. 1962. Sense and Sensibilia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  2. Boyle, Matthew. 2016. “Additive Theories of Rationality: A Critique.” European Journal of Philosophy 24 (3): 527–55.
  3. Christofidou, Andrea. 2000. “Self-consciousness and the Double Immunity.” Philosophy 75 (294): 339–69.
  4. Christofidou, Andrea. 2009a. “Self and Self-consciousness: Aristotelian Ontology and Cartesian Duality.” Philosophical Investigations 32 (2): 134–62.
  5. Christofidou, Andrea. 2009b. “Descartes on Freedom, Truth, and Goodness.” Nous 43 (4): 633–55.
  6. Christofidou, Andrea. 2013. Self, Reason, and Freedom: A New Light on Descartes’ Metaphysics. London: Routledge.
  7. Christofidou, Andrea. 2018. “Descartes’ Dualism versus Behaviourism.” Behavior and Philosophy 46: 63–99.
  8. Christofidou, Andrea. 2019. “Descartes: A Metaphysical Solution to the Mind-Body Relation and the Intellect’s Clear and Distinct Conception of the Union.” Philosophy 94 (367): 87–114.
  9. Christofidou, Andrea. 2021. “Human Rationality: Descartes and Aristotle.” Philosophical Investigations 44 (3): 217–36.
  10. Christofidou, Andrea. 2022. “Descartes’s Flash of Insight: Freedom, the Objective World, and the Reality of the Self.” The European Legacy 37 (3–4): 251–68.
  11. Cottingham, John. 2008. Cartesian Reflections: Essays on Descartes’ Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  12. Descartes, René. 1964–19742 (1897–1913). Oeuvres, éditées par Charles Adam, et Paul Tannery, édition révue par Joseph Beaude, Pierre Costabel, Alan Gabbey, et Bernard Rochot (“AT”). Paris: J. Vrin.
  13. Descartes, René. 1984–1991. The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, volumes 1–2, edited and translated by John Cottingham, Robert Stoothoff, and Dugald Murdoch (“CSM”); volume 3, edited and translated by John Cottingham, Robert Stoothoff, Dugald Murdoch, and Anthony Kenny (“CSMK”). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  14. Descartes, René. 2006. A Discourse on the Method, edited and translated by Ian Maclean. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  15. Evans, Gareth. 1981. “Understanding Demonstratives.” In Meaning and Understanding, edited by Herman Parret, and Jacques Bouveresse, 280–303. Berlin: De Gruyter.
  16. Evans, Gareth. 1982. The Varieties of Reference. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  17. Frege, Gottlob. 1979. “Logic in Mathematics.” In Frege, Gottlob, Posthumous Writings, edited by Hans Hermes, Friedrich Kambartel, and Friedrich Kaubach, translated by Peter Long, and Roger White, 203–50. Oxford: Blackwell.
  18. Frege, Gottlob. 1948. “Sense and Reference.” Philosophical Review 57(3): 209–30.
  19. Frege, Gottlob. 1967. “The Thought: A Logical Inquiry.” In Frege, Gottlob, Philosophical Logic, edited by Peter Frederick Strawson, 17–38. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  20. Gupta, Anil. 2006. Empiricism and Experience. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  21. Hennig, Boris. 2007. “Cartesian Conscientia.” British Journal of the History of Philosophy 15 (3): 455–84.
  22. Hume, David. 1978. Treatise on Human Nature, edited by Lewis Amhers Selby-Bigge, and Peter H. Nidditch. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Second edition.
  23. Kant, Immanuel. 1933. Critique of Pure Reason, edited and translated by Norman Kemp Smith. London: Macmillan Press.
  24. Kenny, Anthony. 1989. The Metaphysics of Mind. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  25. Lähteenmäki, Vili. 2007. “Orders of Consciousness and Forms of Reflexivity in Descartes.” In Consciousness: From Perception to Reflection in the History of Philosophy, edited by Sara Heinämaa, Vili Lähteenmäki, and Pauliina Remes, 177–201. Dordrecht: Springer.
  26. Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm von. 1973. Leibniz: Philosophical Writings, edited and translated by G. H. R. Parkinson, and Mary Morris. London: Dent.
  27. Martin, Wayne. 2008. “Descartes and the Phenomenological Tradition.” In A Companion to Descartes, edited by Janet Broughton, and John Carriero, 496–512. London: Wiley-Blackwell.
  28. McDowell, John. 1998. “Singular Thought and the Extent of Inner Space.” In McDowell, John, Meaning, Knowledge, & Reality, 228–259. Harvard: Harvard University Press.
  29. McRae, Robert. 1972. “Descartes’s Definition of Thought.” In Cartesian Studies, edited by R. J. Butler, 55–6. Oxford: Blackwell.
  30. Nagel, Thomas. 1997. The Last Word. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  31. Peirce, Charles S. 1986. Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, volume 3: 1872–1878, edited by Max H. Fisch, and Christian J. W. Kloesel. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
  32. Radner, Daisie. 1988. “Thought and Consciousness in Descartes.” Journal of the History of Philosophy 26 (3): 439–52.
  33. Rorty, Richard. 19802 (1979). Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. Oxford: Blackwell.
  34. Sellars, Wilfrid. 1956. “Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind.” In The Foundations of Science and the Concepts of Psychology and Psychoanalysis, edited by Herbert Feigl, and Michael Scriven, 253–329. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  35. Shoemaker, Sydney. 1984. “Self-reference and Self-awareness.” In Shoemaker, Sydney, Identity, Cause and Mind: Philosophical Papers, 6–18. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  36. Simmons, Alison. 2012. “Cartesian Consciousness Reconsidered.” Philosophers’ Imprint 12 (2): 1–21.
  37. Spinoza, Benedict. 1996. Ethics, translated by Edwing Curley. London: Penguin Books.
  38. Strawson, Peter Frederick. 1959. Individuals. London: Methuen.
  39. Strawson, Peter Frederick. 1966. The Bounds of Sense. London: Methuen.
  40. Strawson, Peter Frederick. 1994. “The First Person–And Other.” In Self-knowledge, edited by Quassim Cassam, 210–15. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  41. Thiel, Udo. 2011. The Early Modern Subject. Self-consciousness and Personal Identity from Descartes to Hume. Oxford University Press.
  42. Wiggins, David. 1980. Sameness and Substance. Oxford: Blackwell.
  43. Wiggins, David. 1996. “A Reply to Adrian Moore.” In Essays for David Wiggins: Identity, Truth and Value, edited by Sabina Lovibond, and Stephen G. Williams, 272–74. Oxford: Blackwell.
  44. Wilkes, Kathleen V. 1992. “Yishi, Duh, Um, and Consciousness.” In Consciousness in Contemporary Science, edited by Anthony J. Marcel, and E. Bisiach, 16–41. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  45. Williams, Bernard. 1978. Descartes: The Project of Pure Enquiry. Hassocks: The Harvester Press.
PDF
  • Publication Year: 2023
  • Pages: 9-40
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2023 Author(s)

XML
  • Publication Year: 2023
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2023 Author(s)

Chapter Information

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

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

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

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

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

269

Fulltext
downloads

145

Views

Export Citation

1,350

Open Access Books

in the Catalogue

2,262

Book Chapters

3,790,127

Fulltext
downloads

4,424

Authors

from 925 Research Institutions

of 65 Nations

65

scientific boards

from 348 Research Institutions

of 43 Nations

1,248

Referees

from 380 Research Institutions

of 38 Nations