What Kind of Awareness is Awareness of Awareness?

Every conscious experience includes an immediate, built-in awareness of itself, a phenomenon called 'awareness of awareness' (aoa). This self-intimating quality is distinct from introspection, which is a deliberate, reflective way of examining one's experiences. By listing positive features of aoa and contrasting it with introspection, the author clarifies both phenomena and defends a theory of consciousness inspired by Franz Brentano.

Study at a glance

Abstract

In this paper the author discusses and defends a theory of consciousness inspired by Franz Brentano, according to which every conscious experience involves a certain kind of immediate awareness of itself. All conscious experience is in a certain fundamental sense ‘self-intimating’—it constitutively involves awareness of that very awareness. The author calls this ‘the awareness of awareness thesis’, and she calls the phenomenon that it concerns ‘awareness of awareness’ (aoafor short). The author attempts to give a substantive description of whataoaconsists in in two ways, first, by listing some of its positive features, and second, by comparing it and contrasting it with introspection. The idea is that there are many different ways we can be aware of our experiences, introspection being one way,aoabeing another, distinct way. By clarifying the distinction betweenaoaand introspection, we can get a better grasp of both phenomena.