Abstract

The functioning of the pre-reflective or inner self is considered in terms of its possible creation through the recently proposed CODAM 'attention copy' model of attention. In contradiction to the view of Western phenomenology that the inner self appears to serve no specific purpose except that of the ownership of experience, it is proposed here that the inner self acts rather as a call centre, enabling connections to be made between distant and functionally different components of brain processing. Even more importantly it functions by monitoring and speeding up ongoing calls or those about to be set up so that incorrect call routing is avoided and call switching occurs as fast as possible. The relations of such an approach to some recent and influential approaches to consciousness are described