Pre-Intentional Awareness of Self

Abstract

In pre-intentional self-awareness, a person is self-aware without making herself into an object of any intentional act. The idea of pre-intentional self-awareness is examined through a historical lens provided by Kant and Sartre. The idea is further developed analytically. A perceived object is always perceived as something. This occurs because a series of anticipations are generated in the perceiver. The perceiver is implicated in many of these anticipations. In perceiving an object, therefore, the perceiver is pre-intentionally self-aware. A de-intellectualized way of understanding pre-intentional self-awareness is identified and defended. Pre-intentional self-awareness attaches to the possession of conscious experiences. To the extent animals have conscious experiences, therefore, they will, thereby, be pre-intentionally self-aware. Pre-intentional self-awareness is likely to be widely distributed through the animal kingdom.