The Self-Evidencing Agent

Abstract

How the concept of self-evidencing offers a philosophical principle for understanding mind and behavior, consciousness, value, wisdom, and meaning. What is it to be a human individual, an agent? According to Jakob Hohwy, it is to “self-evidence,” to actively seek out sensory evidence for one’s own model of oneself and the world. The Self-Evidencing Agent begins with a simple analysis of what it is for something to exist and then uses this starting point to understand how human agents perceive and make sense of the world, decide to act, and act of their own volition. The central notion of self-evidencing helps us to understand self and consciousness, as well as wisdom, meaning, and mindfulness. Self-evidencing occurs when organisms act in the world in ways that generate evidence for their existence; they evidence their model of the world and themselves. Hohwy offers a first-principles method for philosophical inquiry, intended to provide new answers to difficult philosophical questions, while casting light on the diversity of everyday experience, as well as our attempts to live well.