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First‐Person Methodologies: A View From Outside the Phenomenological Tradition
Author(s) -
Georgalis Nicholas
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
the southern journal of philosophy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.281
H-Index - 21
eISSN - 2041-6962
pISSN - 0038-4283
DOI - 10.1111/j.2041-6962.2007.tb00115.x
Subject(s) - intentionality , content (measure theory) , epistemology , consciousness , representation (politics) , foundation (evidence) , philosophy of language , psychology , sociology , philosophy , metaphysics , mathematics , law , politics , mathematical analysis , political science
It is argued that results from first‐person methodologies are unacceptable for incorporation into a fundamental philosophical theory of the mind unless they satisfy a necessary condition, which I introduce and defend. I also describe a narrow, non phenomenal, first‐person concept that I call minimal content that satisfies this condition. Minimal content is irreducible to third‐person concepts, but it is required for an adequate account of intentionality, representation, and language. Consequently, consciousness is implicated in these as strongly — but differently — than it is in our phenomenal states. Minimal content provides a foundation for an objective philosophical theory of the mind and language. (Some support for these claims is given here. They are extensively argued for in my The Primacy of the Subjective .)