Mind, Self-Consciousness and Knowledge

Abstract

This thesis is about mind, consciousness, and knowledge. My study is philosophical and interdisciplinary, with Philosophy of Mind and Epistemology intersecting with Developmental and Cognitive Psychology, as well as with clinical cases in Neuropsychology. The thesis proposes classifying mental phenomena according to certain epistemic characteristics. It suggests two mutually exclusive, yet jointly all-encompassing, classes of the mental (or mind). These epistemic characteristics concern the very possibility of knowledge. The thesis further proposes that consciousness is a self-relative aspect of mental phenomena. There are two ways of being conscious: reflective and non-reflective; consequently, there are two ways of being self-conscious – self-reflective and self-reflexive. Furthermore, consciousness, intentionality, and perspectival-ness are proposed as three interconnected and unifying characteristics of mentality. It is claimed that these characteristics are fundamental common properties of all mentality: each criterion is sufficient for mentality, and all criteria apply to everything mental. Certain metaphysical consequences follow from my understanding of mental phenomena: whatever is meant by physical phenomena is treated as an object from a mental standpoint. Given these consequences, this thesis suggests alternative metaphysics for the study of Consciousness and Mind.