The Self as Perspectival Consciousness: Advaita Vedānta and the Elusive Sense of Self

Summary

The sense of self is a universal yet elusive feature of conscious experience. The author argues that while we experience ourselves as beings in the world, this is not what we truly are, creating a paradox of self-identity. The paper explores how Advaita Vedānta resolves this paradox by positing that the true self, ātman, is not a subject of consciousness but consciousness itself. This consciousness is not a worldly phenomenon, explaining why the self cannot be objectified.

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Abstract

The sense of self is a ubiquitous feature of consciousness experience, but it is also notoriously elusive. It is elusive, I argue, because although I experience myself as a being in the world, this is not what I am. But how can it be that I exist even though there is nothing that I am? This is the paradox of self-identity and, in this paper, I explore how the paradox is solved by Advaita Vedānta. The Advaitic view is that the true self, the ātman, is not a subject of consciousness, but consciousness itself. This is what I truly am, and it is what we all are in the depths of our being. But consciousness is not a worldly phenomenon; it does not exist or occur within us; and this is why the self is not objectifiable.