The Phenomenal Concept of Self and First-Person Epistemology

This chapter defends the view that the concept of self is a kind of phenomenal concept, anchored in self-experience. This approach sheds new light on the epistemic privileges traditionally attached to I-thoughts. Coliva (2003) argues that we should distinguish between immunity to error through misidentification and two other properties it is often confused with: the impossibility of a split between semantic and speaker’s reference, and the “Real Guarantee.” The phenomenal-concept model explains why each of these three properties arises in connection with I-thoughts, and with what frequency. It also makes sense of the fact that they are regularly conflated, given their common source in the nature of the concept of self, and in the properties of self-experience.