Document Type : Scientific-research
Author
MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Kharazmi Research Center, University of Tabriz
Abstract
The nature of self-awareness remains a fundamental question in philosophy of mind, phenomenology, and the philosophy of language. Although commonly defined as the subject’s awareness of itself, this notion conceals profound conceptual and ontological challenges that have preoccupied philosophers from Hegel to Wittgenstein. The enduring question is whether self-awareness should be viewed as a purely mental reflection or as something that arises within and through language itself. This paper advances the thesis that self-awareness is not merely a mental state but a linguistic event. What we call the awareness of the self is, at a deeper level, the manifestation of language’s reflexive capacity to describe and interpret its own operations. In this view, self-awareness emerges when language becomes capable of turning its own structure and function into the content of discourse, thus transforming language from a communicative tool into a self-reflective medium. While a wide range of philosophical traditions—from Hegelian dialectics and Husserlian intentionality to Islamic mysticism and later linguistic theories—have examined self-awareness, most have overlooked the constitutive role of language in enabling self-reflection. This study seeks to illuminate this neglected dimension through a polyphonic philosophical dialogue, demonstrating that self-awareness can be conceived as the reflexive act of language upon itself. Furthermore, this perspective outlines an objective framework for the experimental investigation of self-awareness, suggesting that by grounding the phenomenon in linguistic mechanisms, the study of consciousness may move from a subjective domain toward an empirically testable and objective field of inquiry.
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