Self-Consciousness and Intersubjectivity: Exploring the role of the awareness of others in the possibility and development of self-consciousness

这个项目的更广泛的目标是调查他人的意识是否是自我意识的可能性的必要条件。这个问题很重要，因为它影响到我们作为个人和社会存在的存在。探索这个问题将有助于我们更多地了解我们如何体验自己以及我们如何与他人联系。这个问题有两个维度，我将讨论：（1）经验问题，即对他人的意识是否构成自我意识发展的一个因素;（2）哲学问题，即对他人的意识是否是自我意识的可设想性和认识可能性的必要和/或充分条件。在我的项目中，我的目标是扭转这一传统，表明这两个问题是相互关联的，最终必须一起回答。关于发展问题，人们普遍认为自我意识的发展是由早期的人际互动介导的，因此本质上是社会性的。这一结论得到了发展心理学和认知科学越来越多的实证证据的支持。关于第二个问题，情况看起来大不相同。有一个长期的哲学传统，可归因于笛卡尔的优先权和认识特权的第一人称。传统上，自我意识被概念化为与他人意识相对并独立于他人意识。第一人称的首要地位构成了许多关于人际理解的解释背后的一个操作假设，我打算解决的一个紧迫问题是，关于自我的社会根源的发展故事与关于自我意识首要地位的传统笛卡尔观点之间是否存在张力。这两个问题的答案是否会有分歧，或者在发展问题和理论问题之间是否存在任何重要的联系？我认为，两个问题不能相互独立地解决。因此，我的项目的最初部分将被转移到这个案例中：表明可能性的条件和自我意识发展的条件之间存在相互依赖关系。我相信这个项目的主要意义是为关于主体间性和社会认知的哲学和实证研究提供一个新的方向。事实上，关于他心的哲学问题，传统上被界定为弥合自我封闭的主体性之间的差距的问题。然而，如果他者已经存在于自我意识中，我们就有理由重新思考我们对他人的知识和经验的本质。这也可以激励和提供概念基础，进一步的实证研究之间的关系，社会技能的发展和出现的认同感。我的研究项目也可以在精神病理学中找到有趣的应用，特别是自闭症谱系障碍，这些障碍可以根据这种社会自我意识的紊乱发展进行分析。

The broader aim of this project is to investigate whether the awareness of others is a requirement for the very possibility of self-consciousness. This question is important as it bears implications on our existence as individuals and social beings. Exploring this issue would help us understand more about how we experience ourselves and how we relate to others. There are two dimensions to this question that I will be addressing:1) The empirical question of whether the awareness of others constitutes a factor in the development of self-consciousness.2) The philosophical question of whether the awareness of others is a necessary and/ or sufficient condition for the conceivability and epistemic possibility of self-consciousness.These two questions have been primarily addressed as independent from one another. In my project I aim to reverse this tradition by showing that these two questions are interconnected and must be ultimately answered together. Regarding the developmental issue, there is widespread agreement that the development of self-consciousness is mediated by early interpersonal interactions and therefore, social in nature. This conclusion is supported by growing empirical evidence from developmental psychology and cognitive science. With respect to the second question, the picture looks much different. There is a long philosophical tradition attributable to Descartes of assigning priority and epistemic privilege to the first-person. Self-consciousness is traditionally conceptualized as opposed to and independent from the consciousness of others. The primacy of the first-person constitutes an operating assumption behind many accounts of interpersonal understanding.One pressing issue that I intend to address is whether there is a tension between the developmental story about the social roots of the self and the traditional Cartesian view on the primacy of self-consciousness. Can the answers to these two questions diverge or is there any significant interconnection between the developmental and theoretical issue? I anticipate that two questions cannot be addressed independently from one another. So, the initial part of my project will be devolved to make the case for this: showing that there is an interdependence between the conditions of possibility and the conditions of development of self-consciousness. This in turn would amount to a refutation of the Cartesian picture of selfhood.I believe the main import of this project is to provide a new direction to both philosophical and empirical research on intersubjectivity and social cognition. In fact, the philosophical issue of other minds has been traditionally framed as the problem of bridging the gap between self-enclosed subjectivities. If, however, the other is already present in self-consciousness, we would have reasons to rethink the very nature of our knowledge and experience of others. This could also motivate and provide conceptual foundations for further empirical studies on the relation between the development of social skills and the emergence of a sense of identity. My research project could also find interesting applications in psychopathology, especially disorders in the autism spectrum which might be analysed in terms of a disturbed development of this social self-consciousness.