An outline of a unified theory of the relational self: grounding the self in the manifold of interpersonal relations

2019-07-01
The paper outlines a structuralist unification between two existing relational theories of the self, i.e., Beni's Structural Realist theory of the Self (SRS) and Gallese's Embodied Relational Self (ERS). Each one of these theories provides a structuralist account of some aspects of the self but leaves out some other aspects which are indispensable to a comprehensive account of the self. SRS accounts for the reflective aspects of the self, and ERS accounts for the environmental and social aspects of the self. In this paper, I argue that when paired with one another, SRS and ERS could amend one another's shortcomings, without giving way to a non-relational conception of the self. I draw on neurology of the connection between Cortical Midline Structures and the mirror neuron system to inform my unifying proposal. I also show that an informational framework can underlie the union.
PHENOMENOLOGY AND THE COGNITIVE SCIENCES

Suggestions

An integrative explanation of action
Benı, Majıd Davoody (Elsevier BV, 2020-12-01)
The Predictive Processing Theory (PP) and its foundational Free Energy Principle (FEP) provide a unifying theoretical groundwork that subsumes theories of perception, cognition, and action. Recently Colin Klein (2018) contends that PP-FEP cannot explain adaptive action with the same force that they deal with perceptions. In his answer to the objection, Clark (2020) points out that FEP explains action, desire and motivation on the basis of minimisation of energy. I argue that this answer begs the question of...
A study on the relation between logic and information
Beygu, Tankut; Grünberg, David; Department of Philosophy (2003)
Gaining prominence at first as a technological concept, information has found a significant role in the study of various problems in philosophy as well as in the diverse fields of science and technology.Though widely employed and studied, information is a complex notion, as it were, resisting a compact description of its characteristics, appearing non-uniformly in such miscellaneous ways as an organizing principle, a form of knowledge, and a connotation of entropy. Apparently, there is a need for further st...
The Code Model of Biosemiotics and the Fate of the Structuralist Theory of Mental Representation
Davoody Benı, Majıd (2017-04-01)
In this paper I am advocating a structuralist theory of mental representation. For a structuralist theory of mental representation to be defended satisfactorily, the naturalistic and causal constraints have to be satisfied first. The more intractable of the two, i.e., the naturalistic constraint, indicates that to account for the mental representation, we should not invoke "a full-blown interpreting mind". So, the aim of the paper is to show how the naturalistic and causal constraints could be satisfied. It...
A critical evaluation of Gricean reductive analysis of meaning
Dinçer, Şule Nur; Grünberg, David; Department of Philosophy (2019)
The aim of this thesis is to examine Paul Grice’s reductive analysis of the concept of non-natural meaning (meaningNN for short). The two stages of Grice’s reductive analysis will be outlined. The utterer’s meaning in the first stage and utterance-type meaning in the latter will be explained. The thesis will state the important objections and amendments in chronological order made by the selected philosopher, as well as – if available – Grice’s own response to the criticisms. We shall critically evaluate th...
An analysis of metafictional self-reflexivity in laurence sterne's the life and opinions of tristram shandy and William Gass' willie masters' lonesome wife
Okuroğlu, Şule; İçöz, Nursel; Department of English Literature (2005)
This thesis evaluates metafictional self-reflexivity, and presents it within the scope of certain structuralist and post-structuralist approaches especially by referring to William Gass̕ definition of metafiction and Raymond Federman̕s theories on the devices of metafiction. Then aspects of the works of William Gass̕ Willie Master̕s Lonesome Wife and Laurence Sterne̕s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy are discussed within this framework.
Citation Formats
M. Davoody Benı, “An outline of a unified theory of the relational self: grounding the self in the manifold of interpersonal relations,” PHENOMENOLOGY AND THE COGNITIVE SCIENCES, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 473–491, 2019, Accessed: 00, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/93661.