what is self-consciousness?

I'm too embarrassed to admit I'm oblivious to your existence.

Self consciousness is a prison.

Self awareness is the key that unlocks this prison.

Using the key is vanquishing both.

Re: what is self-consciousness?


So if you are on a desert island alone, do you have no consciousness of self?

Hmm.. perhaps there is a slight difference between being aware of self and being obsessed by it.

Some people, you can sometimes spot them walking down the street, are very consumed with the thought that they are in the presence of others.
You can spot them by the strained casualty of their strides, by the way they try every position many times over when they sit down in a public place. These are just random examples.
In their minds they're convinced that everyone notices every little detail about them.
This is not being self conscious. It's being self obsessed.

One of the most interesting (and puzzling) things about self-consciousness is that it is a situation where a subject becomes an object "for itself." Not only am I some kind of window on the world (a consciousness), but I see myself (as that window) as another object in the midst of that same world. On one hand there is no reason for the brain to single itself out from the rest of the matter in the universe that it renders in consciousness, but, on the other hand, the brain is aware of itself as the source of that rendering.

This is what distinguishes self-consciousness from mere consciousness. What exactly is the nature of this quasi-extraneous "self" that is not contained in the mere body that my consciousness observes, but which I must believe in and in fact know exists because I am having those observations. This self-reflexivity is vital and extremely interesting.

That is a question I have been asking too.

As you say, at one moment the self can be observing something it percieves as outside of itself.
At other times it is observing itself. But it cannot really do that any more than the eye can see itself. To do it, it needs a mirror.

My take on the nature of self, on account of the implications of the above, boils down to this.
Self is merely a concept. An empty shell which we fill with meaning according to what we need in any given circumstance.
Self is the notion of an absolute, the dualistic counterpart of the absolute of "other" or non-self, also known as god.
But self changes and shifts. It is never constant, and it is impossible to tell where it's borders are. Where does the self end and the other begin?

I think you'll find this interesting:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/229

Excellent! Thanks for posting this.