Self-Consciousness and Self-Appearance

Since there is awareness of every new corporeal movement, the latter can also be said to 'appear'. Such appearance is so fundamental to the functioning of the organism that it remains hidden, especially insofar as consciousness tends to be directed to outer stimuli. But once awareness internalizes the perspective of others in general, it becomes explicitly aware of its motions objectively, and Self-Consciousness, i. e. Reflection, is attained. In Reflection, one is both subject and object, appeared-to and appearing, but, contrary to the long tradition that treats them as otherwise, subject and object therein are not identical. In one's Consciousness that, for example, 'I am walking', what actually appears is 'I began walking', in which what is more precisely entailed is a new movement, walking, that is a variation on the previous condition, 'I'. So, in 'I am conscious that I am walking', the two 'I's are not identical. Rather, the conscious I emerges in the process of Consciousness, as what the appearing I has become through the variation of walking, the grasp of which is impossible insofar as 'consciousness' is construed as an instantaneous passive information-gathering. Thus, in Reflection, a new I is formed, which itself becomes the point of departure for subsequent variation. In other words, every new I is the culmination of what a previous I initiated, in which case, it is the culmination of not only the most recent activity, but of one's entire history.