de Vignemont édérique - The subjects matter: self-consciousness and the body

Representation and Mind

Hilary Putnam and Ned Block, Editors

Hilary Putnam, Representation and Reality

Fred Dretske, Explaining Behavior: Reasons in a World of Causes

Jerrold J. Katz, The Metaphysics of Meaning

Jerry A. Fodor, A Theory of Content and Other Essays

Cora Diamond, The Realistic Spirit: Wittgenstein, Philosophy, and the Mind

Michael Tye, The Imagery Debate

Christopher Peacocke, A Study of Concepts

John R. Searle, The Rediscovery of the Mind

John Campbell, Past, Space, and Self

Galen Strawson, Mental Reality

Michael Tye, Ten Problems of Consciousness: A Representational Theory of the Phenomenal Mind

Robert Cummins, Representations, Targets, and Attitudes

Peter J. McCormick, Starmaking: Realism, Anti-Realism, and Irrealism

Hao Wang, A Logical Journey: From Gdel to Philosophy

Daniel C. Dennett, Brainchildren: Essays on Designing Minds

Jerrold J. Katz, Realistic Rationalism

Jos Luis Bermdez, The Paradox of Self-Consciousness

Jerry Fodor, In Critical Condition: Polemical Essays on Cognitive Science and the Philosophy of Mind

Jaegwon Kim, Mind in a Physical World: An Essay on the Mind-Body Problem and Mental Causation

Jerry Fodor, The Mind Doesnt Work That Way

Susana Nuccetelli, New Essays on Semantic Externalism and Self-Knowledge

Michael Tye, Consciousness and Persons: Unity and Identity

Drew Khlentzos, Naturalistic Realism and the Antirealist Challenge

Alice Crary (editor), Wittgenstein and the Moral Life: Essays in Honor of Cora Diamond

Yuval Dolev, Time and Realism: Metaphysical and Antimetaphysical Perspectives

Terence E. Horgan and Matja Potr, Austere Realism: Contextual Semantics Meets Minimal Ontology

Michael Tye, Consciousness Revisited: Materialism without Phenomenal Concepts

Rocco J. Gennaro, The Consciousness Paradox

Frdrique de Vignemont and Adrian Alsmith (editors), The Subjects Matter: Self-Consciousness and the Body

The Subjects Matter

Self-Consciousness and the Body

edited by Frdrique de Vignemont and Adrian J. T. Alsmith

The MIT Press

Cambridge, Massachusetts

London, England

2017 and Massachusetts Institute of Technology

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.

This book was set in Stone Serif by Westchester Publishing Services. Printed and bound in the United States of America.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

Names: Vignemont, Frdrique de, editor.

Title: The subjects matter : self-consciousness and the body / edited by Frdrique de Vignemont and Adrian J. T. Alsmith.

Description: Cambridge, MA : MIT Press, 2017. | Series: Representation and mind | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017010147 | ISBN 9780262036832 (hardcover : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Human body (Philosophy) | Self-consciousness (Awareness) | Self (Philosophy)

Classification: LCC B105.B64 S83 2017 | DDC 128/.6dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017010147

Contents

Adrian J. T. Alsmith and Frdrique de Vignemont

Andrew J. Bremner

Melvin Mezue and Tamar R. Makin

Marie Martel, Lucilla Cardinali, Alice C. Roy, and Alessandro Farn

Matthew R. Longo

Patrick Haggard, Tony Cheng, Brianna Beck, and Francesca Fardo

Jos Luis Bermdez

Shaun Gallagher

Francesca Garbarini, Lorenzo Pia, Carlotta Fossataro, and Anna Berti

Alexandre Billon

Frdrique de Vignemont

Louise Richardson

Adrian J. T. Alsmith

Christopher Peacocke

Hong Yu Wong

Manos Tsakiris

Jakob Hohwy and John Michael

List of Illustrations

When the arms are crossed, intrinsic tactile locations on the skin (AI and BI) come to occupy less familiar places in the external environment (respectively BE and AE). Several studies now show that adults, children and even infants (Azan & Soto-Faraco, 2008; Begum Ali et al., 2014, 2015; Bremner et al., 2008; Shore et al., 2002; Yamamoto & Kitazawa, 2001) are worse at localizing touches when the arms are crossed than when they are uncrossed. Some (Yamamoto & Kitazawa, 2001; Begum Ali et al., 2014; Bremner & Van Velzen, 2014), but not all (see Shore et al., 2002) have explained this as a bias to locate a touch (for example, to the left hand) in the external location where it would usually occur with the body in a canonical posture (AE), and that this representation competes with representations of current location (on the body [AI] or in external space [BE]). The canonical posture is represented in this figure by the shaded arms with dashed outlines. (Figure reprinted with permission from Bremner & Van Velzen, 2015.)

Probing infants spatial representations of touch by crossing the legs (Begum Ali et al., 2015). (A) An infant participant in the uncrossed- and crossed-feet postures. The tactors, attached to the infants feet using a cohesive bandage, were controlled remotely. The experimenter held the infants feet in the assigned posture during tactile stimulation. (B) Mean proportion of correct first unilateral foot movements to vibrotactile stimuli (error bars indicate the standard error of the mean). The six-month-olds showed a crossed-feet effect whereas the four-month-olds performed equivalently across conditions, matching the best performance of the six-month-olds. Significant comparisons are indicated (* = p < .05, ** = p < .01, *** = p < .001). (Figure reprinted with permission from Begum Ali et al., 2015.)

Crossmodal matching studies of multisensory body perception in infancy. Researchers have measured infants looking preferences for visual movements of limbs projected on a screen which are either congruent or incongruent with their own limb movements perceived proprioceptively (Bahrick & Watson, 1985; Filippetti et al., 2013; Rochat, 1998). Differentiation of congruent and incongruent displays is typically demonstrated by a looking preference for the incongruent presentation, but preferences for the congruent presentation are also observed under some circumstances, and are equally as diagnostic of differentiation. (Figure reprinted with permission from Bremner, 2016.)

Determining whether six- and ten-month-old infants can perceive when tactile and visual stimuli are colocated on their hands (Freier et al., 2016). This figure provides a schematic illustration of the stimulus presentation protocols used in Freier et al.s experiment, and the findings. (A) shows the spatially congruent visual-tactile event condition, and (B) shows the incongruent condition. In (A) colocated bimodal (visual-tactile) stimulation (700 ms) is presented synchronously on a single hand at a time, alternating between left and right hand. In (B) the visual and tactile stimuli alternate between the hands according to the same schedule, but although they are presented synchronously they never coincide on the same hand. (C) displays a schematic of the stimulus presentation schedule within a single trial. (D) shows the mean duration of infants looking at their hands during congruent and incongruent test conditions (in seconds), plotted according to age group (error bars indicate the standard error of the mean). (Figure adapted from Freier et al., 2016.)