Subjective time flows forward, the phenomenal self is embedded into this flow, an inner history unfolds. That it is why it is not a bubble, but a tunnel: There is movement in time. Thomas Metzinger More Quotes by Thomas Metzinger More Quotes From Thomas Metzinger You cannot be a rational subject without veto-control on the level of mental action. Thomas Metzinger veto levels action Dolphins frequently leap above the water surface. One reason for this behaviour could be that, when travelling longer distances, jumping can save the dolphins energy as there is less friction while in the air. Thomas Metzinger distance jumping air All attention is introspection. Thomas Metzinger introspection attention As a first-order approximation, I would say that phenomenality is "availability for introspective attention": Consciousness is a property of all those mental contents to which you can in principle direct your attention. Thomas Metzinger availability attention order I could never understand how someone would embark on their life without having first confronted and clarified the truly fundamental questions. Thomas Metzinger fundamentals firsts What many people don't see is that there are abundant examples of phenomenal opacity: It is one of the most interesting features of the human conscious model of reality that, first, it can contain elements that are not experienced as mind-independent, as unequivocally real, as immediately given, and second, that there is a "gradient of realness" in which one and the same content can be experienced transparently or in an opaque fashion. Thomas Metzinger independent fashion real In ordinary life, the phenomenology of embodied emotions is an excellent example for dynamic changes between transparency and opacity: You can "directly perceive" that your wife is cheating you, or you can become aware of the possibility that maybe it is you who has a problem, that your "immediate" emotional representation of social reality might actually be a misrepresentation. Thomas Metzinger emotional cheating reality Virtual reality is the representation of possible worlds and possible selves, with the aim of making them appear as real as possible - ideally, by creating a subjective sense of "presence" and full immersion in the user. Thomas Metzinger creating real self Subjectivity means to catch yourself in the act. Thomas Metzinger subjectivity mean Subjectivity is an ability, the capacity to use a new inner mode of presenting the fact that you currently know something to yourself. Thomas Metzinger subjectivity use facts As a philosopher, you define constraints for any good theory explaining what you are interested in, then you go out and search for help in other disciplines. Thomas Metzinger philosopher discipline helping Of course, I strongly sympathized with Habermas and the philosophers representing the Frankfurt school, but I also saw the lack of conceptual clarity, and perceived the not-so-revolutionary self-importance in the epigones of Horkheimer, Adorno, and Habermas. Thomas Metzinger saws self school When you are simply observing your breath, you are perceiving an automatically unfolding process in your body. By contrast, when you are observing your wandering mind, you are also experiencing the spontaneous activity of a process in your body. Thomas Metzinger spontaneous body mind If we lose the ability in question for a single moment only, we are immediately being hijacked by an aggressive little "Think me!" and our mind begins to wander. Thomas Metzinger single-mom mind thinking Someone who cannot stop his outer flow of words will soon be unable to communicate with other human beings at all. Thomas Metzinger communicate flow humans The Ego is a transparent mental image: You, the physical person as a whole, look right through it. You do not see it. But you see with it. Thomas Metzinger ego persons looks
