Writing The Self

Abstract

One of the commonest ways of trying to distinguish human beings from other creatures is to emphasise the human uniqueness of the faculties of deliberate or willed self-examination, self-consciousness, self-awareness, and self-identification. Human beings have a sense of superiority when they see other animals (typically dogs, cats, farm animals, and birds) appear to act as if they thought themselves human—ignoring the fact that the reverse delusion is sometimes suffered by human beings themselves. Behind this sense of superiority lies the assumption that the interpretation of reality, including the definition of what is human, is essentially and uniquely a human preserve.