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The Search for Self: Ego, Language and Consciousness
Paperback
PhilosophyForeign Language GeneralGeneral Psychology
Publisher Price: $17.99
ISBN13: 9781068095405
Publisher: Alec Steinwall
Published: Oct 9 2026
Pages: 442
Weight: 1.29
Height: 0.90 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
The Search for Self explores one of philosophy's most perplexing questions: what is the true nature of the self? Following the ancient injunction to 'Know Thyself, ' the book traces the elusive source of self-feeling from its emergence in primitive life forms to the distinctly human experience of self-awareness. At its heart, it examines the relationship between consciousness and symbolic language. Rather than treating the ego as an independent, self-evident entity, the book explores how language provides a symbolic matrix within which the ego appears as a kind of 'avatar' - a linguistic representation of embodied consciousness.
Weaving various fields of study, from consciousness and language to evolution, phenomenology, mythology, and science, the book traces the formation of this linguistic self from the first glimmer of awareness in early cellular life through the conception of a 'soul' in human thinking. The book then turns to the modern world, investigating how this linguistic construction--the ego avatar--shapes our understanding of identity and mortality. What happens when this language-self encounters the sudden challenges of modern information technology and artificial intelligence? The result is an interdisciplinary exploration of consciousness and the self-and an invitation to reconsider what we truly mean when we say, 'I.'
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