Fable

▲ Damasio Recommended + 4 Levels of Self ▼

Integral Options recommends Damasio's writing as have I many times. He then summarizes one of Damasio's more interesting discussions on the self:

As an aside, he proposes at least four levels of self, from least complex to most complex:

1. Neural Self (or proto-self) - a short term collection of neural patterns of activity which represent the current state of the organism

2. Core Self - a second-order entity which maps the state of the proto-self in rather the same way the proto-self maps the current state of the body: whenever an encounter with an object impinges on the proto-self, the change is registered by activity in the core self

3. Autobiographical Self - draws on permanent (though modifiable) memories instead of just the immediate experiences which power the core self. At this point, there is a real, though still pre-linguistic, sense of self. Damasio thinks chimpanzees and probably dogs enjoy this level of consciousness

4. Reflective Self - greater use of longer-term memory, delivers the kind of foresighted, reflective consciousness which we typically associate with human beings