ABSTRACT
What makes our body unique? The most intuitive answer is that it bears a special relation to the self, and to self-awareness. Yet, although introspectively familiar, it is hard to exactly pinpoint the nature of this specific relationship. Thanks to their privileged relation to our body, bodily experiences seem to afford awareness of our body as being our own, what has been called the sense of bodily ownership. The aim of this chapter is to offer a very brief outline of some of the main questions and puzzles that await those interested in bodily ownership. How to account for the first-personal character of the sense of ownership? Does one actually feel one’s body as one’s own or does one only entertain the thought that it is one’s own body? Is it one and the same thing to experience a body part or the whole body as one’s own? What is the relationship between the sense of ownership and the sense of disownership? Is the sense of ownership a matter of degrees? Is the sense of ownership cognitively penetrable? Can one feel sensations in a limb that does not appear to be one’s own? What is the role of agency for ownership? And which form of agency, exploratory or protective? Does one feel one’s body as one’s own because one is aware of its unique significance for survival or is one aware of its unique significance because one feels it as one’s own?
