The features of self-feeling

pp. 123-148

in: Gerhard Kreuch, Self-feeling, Berlin, Springer, 2019

Abstract

The third part presents the main claim of the book. In a nutshell, it argues that self-consciousness must be understood as permeated with affectivity. Self-consciousness is at its core an affective phenomenon, it is self-feeling. Self-feeling is an aspect of our fundamental affectivity. It can be understood as existential feeling. This chapter summarizes the main features of self-feeling building on the first and second part of the book. It is a pre-reflective, pre-propositional, bodily feeling that shapes our space of possibilities. It is the affective disclosure of individual existence. The chapter closes with clarifications to potential questions, such as why it is a feeling, how we can be oblivious of it, if animals can have self-feeling, and if there is one or many self-feelings.