ABSTRACT
For a variety of reasons, although the analytic tradition was responsible for the introduction to philosophy of a field called “philosophy of mind,” the topic of the experiencing subject has not been of primary concern within that tradition. Activity in contemporary philosophy of mind has tended to flow, sometimes circle, studiously around the issues of consciousness and the nature of the experiencing subject. Recently these central issues have begun to be addressed, but only in the confinement of cognitive science or philosophy of mind narrowly conceived. The result is an approach to consciousness as a scientific phenomenon. However valuable it may be, that approach is distinct from, and still leaves untouched, the question of the philosophical conception of the individual experiencing subject, and in particular the question of whether the individual subject has rational autonomy.
