Unity, Objectivity, and the Passivity of Experience
European Journal of Philosophy December 1, 2016 Anil Gomes
P. F. Strawson argued that unity of consciousness requires experience of an objective world. This essay evaluates that claim, explicating Strawson's thesis and reconstructing his argument, then identifying where it fails. The author uses Kant's remarks on the passivity of experience to propose an alternative: in self-ascribing experiences, we must be capable of thinking of them as passive to their objects, providing a different route from unity to objectivity.