John Foster (1991) wrote: '…it seems to me that when I focus on myself introspectively, I am not only aware of being in a certain mental condition; I am also aware, with the same kind of immediacy, of being a certain sort of thing…It will now be asked: ‘Well, what is this nature, this sortal attribute? Let's have it specified!’ But such a demand is misconceived. Of course, I can give it a verbal label: for instance, I can call it ‘subjectness’ or ‘selfhood’. But unless they are interpreted ‘ostensively’, by reference to what is revealed by introspective awareness, such labels will not convey anything over and above the nominal essence of the term ‘basic subject’. In this respect, however, there is no difference between this attribute, which constitutes the subject's essential nature, and the specific psychological attributes of his conscious life…'

Authors

• Person: Howard Robinson Organization: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  Dualism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Winter 2016 Edition)

Sources

• Dualism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Winter 2016 Edition) plato.stanford.edu Howard Robinson · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy via serper

Referenced by nodes (2)

• selfhood concept
• John Foster entity