Introduction
In this section you will find suggestions for further reading on self-knowledge, with links to online versions of articles where available. The
readings are divided into fifteen sections, corresponding to the fifteen sections of my Beginner’s Guide to Self-Knowledge. I’ve tried to pick things that aren’t too technical, unlike a lot of philosophical writing on self-knowledge. You will find suggestions for more advanced further reading in my guide to Self-Knowledge in Oxford Bibliographies Online.
As I say in my Beginner’s Guide on this site, philosophers aren’t the only people who think and write about self-knowledge. Most of the readings below are philosophical but some are by psychologists. If you are interested in the psychology of self-knowledge a good place to start is the Handbook of Self-Knowledge (Guildford Press, 2012), edited by Simine Vazire and Timothy Wilson.
Despite trying to keep things non-technical, some of the material listed here is difficult. More accessible items suitable for the general reader are marked *.
Getting Started
The Perceptual Model of Self-Knowledge
The Inferential Model of Self-Knowledge
Substantial Self-Knowledge
Knowing your Emotions
Knowing Why
Self-Ignorance
The Value of Self-Knowledge
The True Self
What Next?
In this section you will find suggestions for further reading on self-knowledge, with links to online versions of articles where available. The
readings are divided into fifteen sections, corresponding to the fifteen sections of my Beginner’s Guide to Self-Knowledge. I’ve tried to pick things that aren’t too technical, unlike a lot of philosophical writing on self-knowledge. You will find suggestions for more advanced further reading in my guide to Self-Knowledge in Oxford Bibliographies Online.
As I say in my Beginner’s Guide on this site, philosophers aren’t the only people who think and write about self-knowledge. Most of the readings below are philosophical but some are by psychologists. If you are interested in the psychology of self-knowledge a good place to start is the Handbook of Self-Knowledge (Guildford Press, 2012), edited by Simine Vazire and Timothy Wilson.
Despite trying to keep things non-technical, some of the material listed here is difficult. More accessible items suitable for the general reader are marked *.
Getting Started
- Quassim Cassam ‘A Beginner’s Guide to Self-Knowledge’, this website.*
- Brie Gertler ‘Self-Knowledge’, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Stephen Hetherington Self-Knowledge: Beginning Philosophy Right Here and Now (Broadview 2007).*
- Brie Gertler Self-Knowledge (Routledge 2011).
- Richard Moran Authority and Estrangement (Princeton University Press 2001), chapter 1.
- Quassim Cassam Self-Knowledge for Humans (Oxford University Press 2014) chapters 1 and 4.
- Brie Gertler ‘Introduction: Philosophical Issues about Self-Knowledge’, in Brie Gertler (ed.) Privileged Access: Philosophical Acounts of Self-Knowledge (Ashgate 2003).
- Gilbert Ryle The Concept of Mind (Penguin 2000), chapter VI. Daniel Dennett’s Introduction is also worth reading. Ryle’s
chapter is reprinted in Quassim Cassam (ed.) Self-Knowledge (Oxford University Press 1994). - Donald Davidson Subjective, Intersubjective, Objective (Oxford University Press 2001), chapter 1and the first three pages of chapter 2.
- Russell Hulbert & Eric Schwitzgebel Describing Inner Experience: Proponent Meets Sceptic (MIT Press 2007).
- Paul Snowdon ‘How to Think about Phenomenal Self-Knowledge’, in Annalisa Coliva (ed.) The Self and Self-Knowledge (Oxford University Press 2012).
- Richard Nisbett & Timothy Wilson ‘Telling More Than We Can Know: Verbal Reports on Mental Processes’, Pyschological Review 1977
- Richard Moran Authority and Estrangement (Princeton University Press 2001).
- Quassim Cassam Self-Knowledge for Humans (Oxford University Press 2014). *
The Perceptual Model of Self-Knowledge
- David M. Armstrong A Materialist Theory of the Mind, revised edition (Routledge 1993), chapter 15, reprinted in Quassim
Cassam (ed.) Self-Knowledge (Oxford University Press 1994). - Sydney Shoemaker The First-Person Perspective and Other Essays (Cambridge University Press 1996), chapters 10 and 11.
- Paul Boghossian Content and Justification (Oxford University Press 2008), chapter 6.
- Alex Byrne ‘Introspection’, Philosophical Topics 2005.
- Quassim Cassam Self-Knowledge for Humans (Oxford University Press 2014), chapter 10.
The Inferential Model of Self-Knowledge
- Gilbert Ryle The Concept of Mind (Penguin 2000), chapter VI.*
- Darryl Bem ‘Self-Perception Theory’, in L. Berkowitz (ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Academic Press Inc.)
- Peter Carruthers The Opacity of Mind (Oxford University Press 2011)
- Krista Lawlor ‘Knowing What One Wants’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 2009.
- Quassim Cassam Self-Knowledge for Humans (Oxford University Press 2014), chapters 11 and 12.
- Richard Moran Authority and Estrangement (Princeton University Press 2001).
- Matthew Boyle ‘ “Making Up Your Mind” and the Activity of Reason’, Philosophers’ Imprint 2011.
- Stuart Hampshire ‘Some Difficulties in Knowing’, in T. Honderich and M. Burnyeat (eds.), Philosophy As It Is (Penguin, 1979).
- David Finklestein ‘From Transparency to Expressivism’, in J. Conant and G. Abel (eds.), Rethinking Epistemology, volume 2 (De
Gruyter, 2012). - Quassim Cassam Self-Knowledge for Humans (Oxford University Press 2014), chapter 9.
Substantial Self-Knowledge
- Quassim Cassam Self-Knowledge for Humans (Oxford University Press 2014), chapters 3 and 13.
- Eric Schwitzgebel ‘Self-Ignorance’, in J. Liu and J. Perry (eds.), Consciousness and the Self: New Essays (Cambridge University Press, 2012).
Knowing your Emotions
- Martha Nussbaum Love’s Knowledge (Oxford University Press 1990), chapter 11.
- Charles Taylor ‘Self-Interpreting Animals’, in Human Agency and Language (Cambridge University Press 1985).
- Krista Lawlor ‘Knowing What One Wants’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 2009
- Quassim Cassam Self-Knowledge for Humans (Oxford University Press 2014), chapter 13.
Knowing Why
- Richard Nisbett & Timothy Wilson ‘Telling More Than We Can Know: Verbal Reports on Mental Processes’, Pyschological Review 1977
- Matthew Boyle ‘ “Making Up Your Mind” and the Activity of Reason’, Philosophers’ Imprint 2011.
- Michael Shermer Why People Believe Weird Things (Souvenir Press 20o7).
- Quassim Cassam Self-Knowledge for Humans (Oxford University Press 2014), chapter 14.
Self-Ignorance
- Eric Schwitzgebel ‘Self-Ignorance’, in J. Liu and J. Perry (eds.), Consciousness and the Self: New Essays (Cambridge University Press 2012).
- Timothy Wilson Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious (Harvard University Press 2002).
- Timothy Wilson & Elizabeth Dunn, E. ‘Self-Knowledge: Its Limits, Value, and Potential for Improvement’, Annual Review of Psychology 2004.
- Paul Katsafanas ‘Nietzsche on Agency and Self-Ignorance’, Journal of Nietzsche Studies, 2012.
- Quassim Cassam Self-Knowledge for Humans (Oxford University Press, 2014), chapter 14.
The Value of Self-Knowledge
- Simon Feldman & Allan Hazlett ‘Authenticity and Self-Knowledge’, Dialectica 2013.
- Timothy Wilson & Elizabeth Dunn, E. ‘Self-Knowledge: Its Limits, Value, and Potential for Improvement’, Annual Review of Psychology 2004.
- Quassim Cassam Self-Knowledge for Humans (Oxford University Press 2014), chapter 15.
The True Self
- Derek Parfit Reasons and Persons (Oxford University Press 1987), chapters 10 and 11.
- Bruce Hood The Self Illusion (Constable 2011).
- Barry Dainton Self (Penguin 2014).
- Rebecca Schlegel et al. ‘Feeling Like You Know Who You Are: Perceived True Self-Knowledge and Meaning in Life’, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 2011.
What Next?
- Quassim Cassam Self-Knowledge (Oxford Bibliographies Online, 2010, revised edition 2103).