Self-knowledge : strengthening our privileged access and the inner sense mechanism

In the discourse of self-knowledge, the concept of privileged access and the inner sense account seems to be taken for granted in that we are not cognizant of what else it can offer. I begin this essay with a close inspection of a few accounts of privileged access and the nature of the mental states...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Nur Amirah Sabrina Mohamad
Other Authors: Winnie Sung
Format: Final Year Project
Language:English
Published: 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10356/76566
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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Summary:In the discourse of self-knowledge, the concept of privileged access and the inner sense account seems to be taken for granted in that we are not cognizant of what else it can offer. I begin this essay with a close inspection of a few accounts of privileged access and the nature of the mental states that derive from it. I introduce the inner sense account followed by a few criticisms by Sydney Shoemaker, an advocate of introspection but not the ISA, and Gilbert Ryle, who refuses to give any role to privileged access in self-knowledge and who is skeptical about the general idea of introspection I tackle Shoemaker’s views by demonstrating that the ISA remains relevant despite his “self-blindness” thesis. With Ryle’s non-asymmetrical view of acquiring self-knowledge, I highlight some concerns regarding his arguments. Ultimately, I show that our privileged access and the ISA must necessarily co-exist to strengthen the view that we are intuitively attuned to these two epistemic approaches in acquiring self-knowledge.