Self-Consciousness and Self-Knowledge

Conference on Self-Consciousness and Self-Knowledge

21-22 November 2014

Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Philosophy department Centre de Philosophie Contemporaine de la Sorbonne (EA3562 PhiCo) with the support of the Conseil Scientifique de l'Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and the Institut universitaire de France

Conference Theme

In being conscious of ourselves or in knowing ourselves, we indulge in a peculiar reflexive relation to ourselves. Traditionally, that relation has been described as a “coincidence of subject and object”: in self-consciousness and self-knowledge, the “subject” of knowledge or consciousness is said to “coincide” with its “object”. In so describing the relation, many authors have assumed that that relation is notionally distinct from our intentional relation to the world; that it is a second-order relation that is conceptually separable from the “first-order” relation that we entertain with other objects. Thus, explaining the notions of self-consciousness and self-knowledge has often seemed to require making sense of what metaphorically has been described as an eye that can see itself. It is hardly surprising that such endeavors have been
confronted to many paradoxes.

The conference will explore the attempts that have been undertaken in contemporary philosophy to overcome such paradoxes without providing a reductionist account of self-knowledge and self-consciousness. That is, the conference will explore the contemporary approaches to those two notions that reject the paradigm of an inner spectator but don’t seek to reject the very idea of self-knowledge or self-consciousness. Since the relation between those two notions has played a central role in such endeavors, a crucial problem that the conference will seek to address is just how a theory of self-knowledge relates to a theory of self-consciousness. Must a theory of self-knowledge be subsumed to an overarching theory of self-consciousness or do the two theories deal with distinct subject matters?



Program

Friday, 21st November
4 rue de la Valette, Centre Sainte-Barbe, Amphithéâtre

14h00 - Welcome

Afternoon session - Chair:  Sandra Laugier (Univ. Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)

14h15 - Pirmin Stekeler-Weithofer (Univ. Leipzig)
« Self-awareness, Self-consciousness and Self-determination in the light of Aristotle, Hegel and Heidegger »

15h30 - Sofia Miguens (Univ. Porto)
« ’Who am I – or What?’ Two ways of being unable to go wrong »

16h45 - Pause

17h00 - Jean-Philippe Narboux (Univ. Bordeaux III)
« Is Self-consciousness Consciousness of One's Self? »



Saturday, 22nd November
17 rue de la Sorbonne, UFR de philosophie, salle Halbwachs

Morning session - Chair : David Zapero (Univ. Chicago/ Univ. Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)

10h00 - Sandra Laugier (Univ. Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)
« Wittgenstein: connaissance et ignorance de soi »

11h15 - Sophie Djigo (Lycée Ribot)
« Les difficultés de la connaissance de soi : transparence et interprétation »

12h30 - Lunch break

Afternoon session - Chair : Jocelyn Benoist (Univ. Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)

14h15 - Sabine Plaud (Univ. de Recherche Paris Sciences et Lettres)
« Wittgenstein et Le monde tel que je l’ai trouvé : le faux problème de la connaissance de soi

15h30 - David Zapero (Univ. Chicago / Univ. Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)
« Reflexivity and First-Personal Authority »

16h45 - Pause

17h00 - Charles Travis (King’s College)
« Private Lies »


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organized by David Zapero and Sandra Laugier

contact: [email protected]