Body representations and the sense of self

Longo, Matthew R. (2017) Body representations and the sense of self. In: de Vignemont, F. and Alsmith, A. (eds.) The Subject's Matter: Self-Consciousness and the Body. Cambridge, U.S.: MIT Press. ISBN 9780262036832.

Abstract

We experience our body uniquely from the inside as an object of immediate experience, qualitatively differently from our perception of other object. However, we also experience out body from the outside, as a physical object just like others, and as one body among an entire population of bodies very much like our own. In this chapter, I will focus on this second mode of experiencing the body. I will consider this issue from three perspectives. First, I will discuss how the apparent unity of the sense of self co-exists with the diversity of body representations that have been described, both of one’s own body and of bodies in general. Second, I will discuss several lines of evidence for shared body representations, in which one’s own body representation is shaped by its status as an instance of the category BODIES. Finally, I will finish with a speculative discussion of two ways in which bodily structure could be specified, either absolutely as a fully specified form, or relatively as a vector deviation from the average body.

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