The Subjective Self 
A Portrait 
inside Logical Space

Harwood Fisher

Summary of the Plan for the Book

The purpose of this book is to depict the subjective self, showing its agency and its function as an origin. The psychological models reviewed account only for an objective self. This works out to be a self as a product. My thesis is that by visualizing the self iconically as a logical space, it is possible to depict self both as origin and product. The argument of the book extends ideas of Kurt Lewin, Jean Piaget, and C. S. Peirce. By drawing on each of these thinkers, common themes of perspective and construction are drawn together in a logical space--the self. By developing ideas from these three thinkers, the roles of categorization and schematization are applied to the processes of originating and representing affect and thought. 

The book is divided into 6 groupings. Unlike the usual book divisions, these groupings provide a spiraling structure to the themes.  In the book one aspect of the spiral is the twisting by which subjectivity emerges, only to be turned back into hiding. This conflict is central to the themes of the book, and it comes back in different disciplines and traditions and in different historical contexts.

Grouping 1 introduces the themes. In groupings 2-4 of the book, these themes are shown as conflicts over subjectivity.  The issues work their spirals of overt concern over the individual and the inevitable abandonment of the subjective elements. The spiral rises and falls not only in Lewin's classical view of person and self, but also in post-modern conceptions that are constructionist, computational, and neo-Darwinian.  

In groupings 5 & 6 of the book, the ideas seen developing in the background come to the fore.  I draw the self by visually depicting processes, such as its creating metaphors and developing categories, and I show how its products in thought and language are schematically constructed and viewable.

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