Sensory Feeling as the Source of the Self:

The distinction between I and not-I is of fundamental importance in European philosophy. What grounds this distinction? I will introduce and examine a once prominent, but now neglected answer to this question and isolate its plausible core. The German philosopher and psychologist Herman Lotze (1817-81) argued that sensory feeling is the ground of the I/not-I distinction. I will expound Lotze’s answer by focussing on his detailed theory of sensory feeling. After uncovering a problem for Lotze, I will go on and defend the spirit of Lotze’s approach by drawing on a proposal by Lotze’s student James Ward (1843-1925). In this proposal coenesthesis (Gemeingefühl) or universal feeling is central.