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Demystifying the Theory of the Unity of Knower and Known: A Comparative Study of the Views of Ṣadrā and Shoemaker Regarding Self-Knowledge
Zahra Sarkarpour, Zahra Khazaei
Journal:

Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie / Volume 62 / Issue 3 / December 2023

Published online by Cambridge University Press:

01 June 2023, pp. 569-589
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Mullā Ṣadrā explains self-knowledge through the notion of knowledge-by-presence, which refers to the immediate presence of the known before the knower. A puzzling component of this view is his idea that knower and known have a relationship of unity with one another. Reflection on Sydney Shoemaker's account of self-knowledge can help us uncover Ṣadrā's motivation for this puzzling idea. We show that Ṣadrā was motivated by his awareness of the concept of self-blindness, a notion introduced into contemporary philosophy by Shoemaker.

Chapter 3 - Thinking about the self
- By John Perry
Edited by JeeLoo Liu, California State University, Fullerton, John Perry, Stanford University, California
Book:

Consciousness and the Self

Published online:

05 December 2011

Print publication:

17 November 2011, pp 76-100
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Summary

This chapter first constructs an account of self-beliefs that distinguishes them from beliefs that are merely about the person one happens to be. Next, it considers issues raised by David Rosenthal in his chapter in this book about what he calls the "essential indexicality" of Higher-Order Thoughts (HOTs). Rosenthal's account involves giving up Sydney Shoemaker's principle that a person is immune to certain sorts of errors about her own mental states, namely, whether it is she that is having them. The chapter argues that we should not give up Shoemaker's principle, and that we need not do so to account for the feature of HOTS that Rosenthal calls their "essential indexicality". These issues are crucial for those who are inclined to accept Rosenthal's account of consciousness, in which HOTS play a crucial role.

Chapter 8 - Self-ignorance
- By Eric Schwitzgebel
Edited by JeeLoo Liu, California State University, Fullerton, John Perry, Stanford University, California
Book:

Consciousness and the Self

Published online:

05 December 2011

Print publication:

17 November 2011, pp 184-197
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Summary

Philosophers tend to be impressed by human self-knowledge. Perhaps the most prominent writer on self-knowledge in contemporary philosophy is Sydney Shoemaker. From Descartes to the present, the philosophical literature on self-knowledge of consciousness and attitudes has focused, with a few exceptions, on statements of or attempted explanations of the fact that we know ourselves remarkably well. Personality trait attributions, skill attributions, and attitude attributions can all be seen as shorthand ways of talking about patterns of inward and outward action and reaction. The philosophical focus on how impressive our self-knowledge is gets the most important things backwards. Self-knowledge is pretty good about narrow and concrete matters. In a classic article, Shelley Taylor and Jonathon Brown, reviewing a broad range of literature, suggest that positive illusions about oneself are the ordinary concomitant of mental health.