by Ifediba Nwokedi

Created on: May 12, 2010

Self-awareness or self-knowledge commonly denotes knowing one's inner subjective awareness of oneself, e.g. mental state, emotion, sensations, beliefs and desires. From a definition standpoint this is true, but what is the true philosophy and epistemology of the term self-awareness.

I will attempt to clarify this question in this article. I say attempt because I will only be able to provide a skeletal outline for further research and exploration. Self-awareness is in its epistemology hard to define, but this did not deter philosophers like Descartes to undertake a discourse worthy of such a topic. So what is noteworthy as bout the epistemology of self-awareness.? It is said to be special in that it is certain, and each individual uses a specific method to explore one’s own mental state. The strongest assumption on behalf of self-awareness being distinct from other knowledge is this certainty and omniscience of one’s knowledge of one’s mental state. Nobody can undermine the knowledge we have of our- selves, it is infallible in that we are the only one that knows our internal mental state and can compare it to the feedback we receive from others and our environment.

Hence, if one carefully uses a method of knowing exclusive to acquiring self-knowledge, one does not forms false beliefs about one’s state of mind. Yet, there is a counter argument to this infallible thesis which suggest that one can use a different method of exploration other than introspection, and one may not careful in matching up our assumptions with reality. A more appropriate way of looking at this thesis is to restrict this absolute assumption to a phenomenological state of sensation. Descartes approves of the restricted and qualified assumption of the infallible thesis with his statement: “There remain sensations, emotions and appetites. These may be clearly perceived provided we take care in our judgments concerning them to include no more than what is strictly contained in our perception – no more than that of which we have inner awareness. But this is a very difficult rule to observe, at least with regard to sensation. (Descartes, 1644/1985, I.66, p.216, as cited in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/self-knowledge/)

Although, this thesis is closer to a plausible truth than the infallibility theory it does not withstand all controversy. Especially in regards to Wittgenstein’s reproach that if we cannot be

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