The conscious self: ontology, epistemology and the mirror quest.
Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior October 1, 2005 Alexei V Samsonovich, Giorgio A Ascoli
The self as the subject of experience is distinct from self-awareness, body image, or narrative identity. The authors argue that the self as the immediate subject cannot be dismissed as an illusion. They adapt Chalmers' framework for consciousness to formulate axioms for the self-concept and use a thought experiment called the "mirror quest" to show that the framework may need revision to account for the subject. This analysis leads to a novel position called "subjective nonreductive functionalism," which has implications for brain sciences as an epistemological model.