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Abstract

Witz and Goodwin suggest that every individual illustrates the “phenomenon/reality” of being “a single-consciousness-and-‘I’ from childhood to old age.” This includes three aspects that are experienced together in an inseparable unity: (a) the fact that a sense of I is constantly in innumerable ways part of one’s subjective experience, (b) feeling (presupposing, tacitly taking for granted, believing) one is the same continuous “consciousness-and-I” all the time from childhood on, and (c) feeling (presupposing, etc.) one is always the same person. This article argues that to these aspects should be added (d) the fact that the individual feels that in his or her interactions with others during the day he or she is to some extent subjectively understanding them.

Keywords

inter-subjectivity portraiture collective consciousness Cooley single consciousness-and-“I”

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On the Root of Feeling One Is Subjectively Understanding Another

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