Self cognition

By Bodhangkur

1. Ordinary Philosophical Account

How is a self cognized or known?

A self is known only indirectly, through its operations, never as a thing.
You cannot encounter “the self” the way you encounter a chair.
You only encounter:

· your acts (“I walk”)

· your perceptions (“I see”)

· your feelings (“I am angry”)

· your memories (“I remember”)

· your decisions (“I choose”)

Thus:

Self is cognized as the implicit owner of experience.

That is:
A self is known by the first-person structure of experience: the “mineness” or “for-me-ness”.

There is no separable content “self”.
There is only the form of experience: all contents appear to one centre.

This is the classical insight of:

· Kant (apperception = “I think must be able to accompany…”),

· Husserl (the “pure ego” as the point of orientation),

· Zahavi (the “for-me-ness” structure),

· William James (the “stream” with a felt centre).

2. How the Self Is Cognized in Finn’s Procedure Monism

Finn’s model sharpens this drastically.

Self is not something you know; it is the local processing interface that performs the knowing.

Thus:

The self is cognized only as:
(1) its boundary,
(2) its realness-feedback (sat-cit), and
(3) its error/pain feedback (ānanda’s opposite) marking threats to stability.

Let’s break this down with Finn’s terms.

2.1 The Interface’s First Feedback: sat–cit (“I AM THIS”)

The very first cognition of self is the baseline experience of being-on:

· “I am this.”

· The realness of one’s own current configuration.

· Awareness of presence without content.

This is not self-awareness of a self.
It is self-awareness as the self.

It is the immediate operational signal that the local procedure is active and cohesive.

Thus:

Self is cognized as the interface’s own activation signal.

2.2 Cognition of Self as Boundary Detection

The interface continually distinguishes:

· signal/not-signal

· inside/outside

· me/not-me

· my control/not my control

This is not conceptual.
It is pre-conceptual pattern recognition: immune system, proprioception, threat-detection, prediction-error minimisation.

Thus:

Self is cognized as the boundary that must be defended.

This boundary is not metaphysical; it is the constraint that lets a token hold.

2.3 Cognition of Self as Error and Pain

Error is any perturbation of coherence.

Pain (physical/emotional) is the cognitive registration of boundary threat.

Thus:

Self is cognized whenever it is endangered.

The sudden flare of pain, confusion, fear, disorientation = the self discovering itself as a threatened pattern.

This is the functional origin of:

· “This hurts me.”

· “I must stop this.”

· “I must respond.”

2.4 Cognition of Self as the Source of Action

Whenever the interface produces an action, it generates:

· ownership (“I did this”)

· agency (“This came from here”)

Thus:

Self is cognized as the origin of controlled change.

Every act reveals the self as the local centre of transformation.

2.5 Absence Case: How the Self Is Revealed in its Disappearance

In deep shock, anaesthesia, dreamless sleep, or trauma, the self disappears.

On restoration:

· “I AM AGAIN”

· “I’m back.”

Thus:

The self is cognized by its contrast to its own absence.

This matches Finn’s UP reboot / rephasing insight.

3. Ultra-Minimal Answer

The self is cognized as the interface’s own continuity.

Or:

You know the self only as the centre from which knowing radiates.

4. Extreme Reduction (Occam-sharp)

The self is not known (tacit),
Only its operations are known,
and the knower of those operations is what we call “self.”

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