The Self: Naturalism, Consciousness, and the First-Person Stance - Tapa dura

Ganeri covers a lot of groundâthe author has clearly succeeded in seamlessly moving back and forth across different schools and traditions of philosophy ... The organization of the book is in such a way that it touches all most all the major problems which are discussed in the philosophy of mind. (Robin Luke Varghese, Metapsychology Online Reviews)

Ganeri's research into the Indian literature is impressive in its scope and detail, and he does his best to make it accessible. (John Cottingham, Philosophy)

Ganeri's book is truly impressive in its scope and sophistication. (Lynne Rudder Baker, University of Massachusetts at Amherst)

Western-trained philosophers looking for answers to the puzzling questions the various properties of the self . . . will find a thorough and sophisticated discussion that at the same time introduces them to a stunning set of intellectual gems from India's philosophical history . . . scholars working on Ancient Indian materials dealing with the relation of body, mind, and self . . . will find new insights into ways of thinking about the Ancient Indian discussion and the interrelation between various philosophical traditions on almost every page. The ease with which Ganeri manages to keep both audiences on board . . . is nothing less than astonishing. (Jan Westerhoff, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews)

one of the key aims of the comparative philosophical enterprise is to think about familiar problems in a new light, and this aim is admirably fulfilled by Ganeri's book. . . It is no exaggeration to say that this book marks the beginning of a completely new phase in the study of Indian philosophy, one in which a firm grasp of the historical material forms the basis for going beyond pure exegesis, opening up the way for doing philosophy with ancient sources. (Jan Westerhoff, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews)

What is it to occupy a first-person stance? Is the first-personal idea one has of oneself in conflict with the idea of oneself as a physical being? How, if there is a conflict, is it to be resolved? The Self recommends a new way to approach those questions, finding inspiration in theories about consciousness and mind in first millennial India. These philosophers do not regard the first-person stance as in conflict with the natural―their idea of nature is not that of scientific naturalism, but rather a liberal naturalism non-exclusive of the normative.

Jonardon Ganeri explores a wide range of ideas about the self: reflexive self-representation, mental files, and quasi-subject analyses of subjective consciousness; the theory of emergence as transformation; embodiment and the idea of a bodily self; the centrality of the emotions to the unity of self. Buddhism's claim that there is no self too readily assumes an account of what a self must be. Ganeri argues instead that the self is a negotiation between self-presentation and normative avowal, a transaction grounded in unconscious mind. Immersion, participation, and coordination are jointly constitutive of self, the first-person stance at once lived, engaged, and underwritten. And all is in harmony with the idea of the natural.