Self-Knowledge and Agency

Inquiry concerning the nature of self-knowledge has been one of the fundamental concerns of philosophy from its very inception. The enterprise of providing an adequate account of self-knowledge is closely related to questions regarding the role of humans as subjects of experience and as agents of actions. This collection of essays purports to address the problem of self-knowledge and agency by focusing on: a) the epistemological questions, and b) the relationship between the epistemological issues, and issues centering on agency and morality. The contributions in this volume not only deal with contemporary debates in Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Action and Moral Philosophy, some of them relate these current debates to questions raised by ancient Greek and Indian philosophers regarding the nature of self-knowledge and moral agency. A whole range of questions regarding the nature and status of first-person epistemology, its connection with questions concerning consciousness, intentionality, rationality, agency, personal identity, and morality are discussed in the twelve essays in this volume written by philosophers actively engaged in research in these areas. These essays provide accounts of the complex manner in which human beings understand and describe themselves as well as engage with the world.

Manidipa Sen teaches Philosophy at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Her research interests are: philosophy of mind, philosophy of language and epistemology. Her publications include Thinking about the World: An Essay in de Re Thought and the Externalist-Internalist Debate (2008), and Knowledge, Truth and Realism: Essays in Philosophical Analysis by Pranab Kumar Sen (2007), which she co-edited with Nirmalya Narayan Chakraborty and Madhucchanda Sen.