Comment in:

Conscious Cogn. 2007 Sep;16(3):600-3.

Pre-reflective self-as-subject from experiential and empirical perspectives.

CREA - CNRS, 1 rue Descartes, 75005 Paris, France. legrand@shs.polytechnique.fr

In the first part of this paper I characterize a minimal form of self-consciousness, namely pre-reflective self-consciousness. It is a constant structural feature of conscious experience, and corresponds to the consciousness of the self-as-subject that is not taken as an intentional object. In the second part, I argue that contemporary cognitive neuroscience has by and large missed this fundamental form of self-consciousness in its investigation of various forms of self-experience. In the third part, I exemplify how the notion of pre-reflective self-awareness can be of relevance for empirical research. In particular, I propose to interpret processes of sensorimotor integration in light of the phenomenological approach that allows the definition of pre-reflective self-consciousness.

PMID: 17533140 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]