Metodo

International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Book | Chapter

121410

Abstract

This chapter discusses research on facial self-recognition. The ability to recognize one’s own face, for instance by passing the mirror mark test, has often been heralded as providing empirical evidence for the presence of self-consciousness. A failure to pass the test has also been seen as evidence for the absence of self-consciousness. Some, such as Gallup, have even argued that creatures incapable of passing such a test lack conscious experiences altogether. The latter interpretations are criticized, and the plausibility of an alternative interpretation of mirror self-experience is assessed, one that sees facial self-recognition as testifying to the presence of a rather special kind of self-consciousness, namely, one that in the case of human beings often has a distinctive social dimension to it.

Publication details

Published in:

Zahavi Dan (2014) Self and other: Exploring subjectivity, empathy, and shame. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Pages: 197-207

DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199590681.003.0013

Full citation:

Zahavi Dan (2014) The self as social object, In: Self and other, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 197–207.