“This Self of All the other Selves:” Part I

Abstract

In the Principles, James provided a lead with regard to which totality of mental-occurrence instances make up the person's conscious being (one of the common meanings of the word consciousness). That is, this totality may amount to a certain kind of mental occurrence, the kind James called “the self of selves,” “the central active self,” and “the innermost sanctuary of our life” in his chapter “The Consciousness of Self.” The present article pursues the character and nature of “this self of all the other selves” according to James's firsthand account of it. Also, this article provides replies from James's perspective to six objections brought by Stout against James's account of the self of selves. These objections pertain mainly to the latter's dimension of “spontaneity,” or activity.