“This Self of All the other Selves:” Part II

Abstract

William James provided a lead regarding which totality of mental-occurrence instances make up the person's “conscious being:” this totality may amount to a certain kind of mental occurrence, which James called “the self of all the other selves,” “the central active self,” and “the innermost sanctuary of our life.” Published in two parts, the present article pursues the nature of the self of selves. In Part II, I attend to issues raised by James's account of this self, including his understanding of (a) causal relations, (b) mental causation, (c) mental activity, (d) the mental-physical relation, (e) the stream of consciousness's transparency, (f) functions of the self of selves, and (g) the nature of “I.”