Buch | Kapitel
The self as social object
pp. 197-207
Abstrakt
This chapter discusses research on facial self-recognition. The ability to recognize one’s own face, for instance by passing the mirror mark test, has often been heralded as providing empirical evidence for the presence of self-consciousness. A failure to pass the test has also been seen as evidence for the absence of self-consciousness. Some, such as Gallup, have even argued that creatures incapable of passing such a test lack conscious experiences altogether. The latter interpretations are criticized, and the plausibility of an alternative interpretation of mirror self-experience is assessed, one that sees facial self-recognition as testifying to the presence of a rather special kind of self-consciousness, namely, one that in the case of human beings often has a distinctive social dimension to it.
Publication details
Published in:
Zahavi Dan (2014) Self and other: Exploring subjectivity, empathy, and shame. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Seiten: 197-207
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199590681.003.0013
Referenz:
Zahavi Dan (2014) The self as social object, In: Self and other, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 197–207.