Self, No Self? Perspectives from Analytical, Phenomenological, and Indian Traditions

The nature and reality of self is a subject of increasing prominence among Western philosophers of mind and cognitive scientists. It has also been central to Indian and Tibetan philosophical traditions for over two thousand years. It is time to bring the rich resources of these traditions into the contemporary debate about the nature of self. This volume is the first of its kind. Leading philosophical scholars of the Indian and Tibetan traditions join with leading Western philosophers of mind and phenomenologists to explore issues about consciousness and selfhood from these multiple perspectives. Self, No Self? is not a collection of historical or comparative essays. It takes problem-solving and conceptual and phenomenological analysis as central to philosophy. The essays mobilize the argumentative resources of diverse philosophical traditions to address issues about the self in the context of contemporary philosophy and cognitive science. Self, No Self? will be essential reading for philosophers and cognitive scientists interested in the nature of the self and consciousness, and will offer a valuable way into the subject for students.

1 - Introduction
2 - The Who and How of Experience
3 - The Experiential Self: objections and clarifications
4 - Nirvana and Ownerless consciousness
5 - Self and Subjectivity: A Middle Way Approach
6 - Self-No-Self? Memory and Reflexive Awareness
7 - Subjectivity, Selfhood and the Use of the Word 'I'
8 - 'I am of the nature of Seeing': Phenomenological Reflections on the Indian Notion of Witness-Consciousness
9 - Situating the Elusive Self of Advaita Vedãnta
10 - Enacting the Self: Buddhist and Enactivist Approaches to the Emergence of the Self
11 - Radical self-awareness
12 - Buddhas as Zombies: A Buddhist Reduction of Subjectivity

Mark Siderits is Professor of Philosophy at Seoul National University. He received his BA from University of Hawaii and his Ph.D. from Yale University. His work is situated in the intersection between analytic metaphysics and classical Indian philosophy. He is the author of Indian Philosophy of Language (Kluwer, 1991), Personal Identity and Buddhist Philosophy: Empty Persons (Ashgate, 2003), and Buddhism as Philosophy (Hackett, 2007). Evan Thompson is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. He received his B.A. from Amherst College in Asian Studies and his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Toronto. He is the author of Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind (Harvard University Press, 2007) and Colour Vision: A Study in Cognitive Science and the Philosophy of Perception (Routledge Press, 1995). He is also co-author of The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience (MIT Press, 1991). Dan Zahavi is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Subjectivity Research at the University of Copenhagen. He obtained his Ph.D. from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in 1994 and his Dr. Phil. (Habilitation) from the University of Copenhagen in 1999. He is currently co-editor in chief of the journal Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences. In his systematic work, Zahavi has mainly been investigating the nature of selfhood, self-consciousness, and intersubjectivity. Previous publications include Husserl und die transzendentale Intersubjektivität (Kluwer, 1996), Self-awareness and alterity (Northwestern University Press, 1999), Husserls Phenomenology (Stanford University Press, 2001), Subjectivity and Selfhood (MIT Press, 2005), and as co-author The Phenomenological Mind (Routledge, 2008).