Believing oneself into existence: A dynamic approach to the puzzle of self-conception

Resumo

Assuming the existence of ordinary human beings as a given, this article offers an assessment of the nature of the phenomenological self as a construct through which humans define each other and themselves based on their interdependent social roles. In order to address the question of what role does self-conception have in forming and constituting an individual’s identity, I explore the puzzle of self-conception formulated by George Mead to determine the epistemic source of a human being’s self-conception through different approaches to this puzzle. The focus of this article is the gap existing between the epistemic origin of self-conception and our ability to trace it back to first-hand experience.