Self-consciousness

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Knowledge of oneself as knowing. Not merely consciousness of something, but the turning back of consciousness upon itself - and thus the structure that operates throughout the logic as self-relation. The decisive point in Hegel: self-consciousness does not arise through self-observation, but in relation to others. I know who I am by finding myself mirrored in another who recognizes me.

In Hegel: Phenomenology of Spirit, Chapter IV; Enz. §§424-437

Cross-references: Recognition, Self-relation, Reflection, I

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