Editing Indexicality (section)

== In philosophy of mind and metaphysics ==
Indexicality is also studied in relation to fundamental issues in [[epistemology]], [[self-consciousness]], and [[metaphysics]],<ref name=iep/> for example asking whether indexical facts are [[further facts|facts that do not follow from the physical facts]], and thus also form a link between philosophy of language and [[philosophy of mind]]. Related ideas include [[haecceity]] in medieval scholastic philosophy, and the [[type-token distinction]].

Some philosophers have used indexicality as a way of defining the [[Philosophy of self|self]]. The philosopher Benj Hellie coined the phrase "the [[vertiginous question]]" to describe the question of why, of all the subjects of experience out there, ''this'' one—the one corresponding to the human being referred to as Benj Hellie—is the one whose experiences are ''live''. (The reader is supposed to substitute their own case for Hellie's.)<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hellie |first1=Benj |last2= |first2= |date=2013 |title=Against Egalitarianism |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/HELCFC |journal=Analysis |volume=73 |issue= |publisher= |pages=304–320 |doi=10.1093/analys/ans101 |access-date=}}</ref> Other philosophers have described similar phenomena. Tim S. Roberts refers to the question of why a particular organism out of all the organisms that happen to exist happens to be you as the "Even Harder Problem of Consciousness".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Roberts|first=Tim S.|title=''The Even Harder Problem of Consciousness'' by Roberts. Tim S.|journal=NeuroQuantology|date=September 2007|volume=5|issue=2|pages=214–221|doi=10.14704/nq.2007.5.2.129 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228618472}}</ref> [[Herbert Spiegelberg]] has referred to it as the "I-am-me experience", and it has been called the "Ich-Erlebnis" by German psychologists.<ref>{{citation |last=Watanabe |first=Tsuneo |contribution=From Spiegelberg's "I-am-me" experience to the solipsistic experience |title=IHSRC 2009 (The 28th International Human Science Research Conference) |place=Molde, Norway |date=1 June 2009 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/388593480_From_Spiegelberg's_I-am-me_experience_to_the_solipsistic_experience |access-date=2 February 2025 }}</ref><ref>{{citation |last=Watanabe |first=Tsuneo |contribution=Enigma of the private self and studies of the "I-am-me experience": Towards a phenomenological approach to the development of the subjective self |title=ISTP (International Society for Theoretical Psychology) 2017 Conference (Tokyo, Japan) |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/386086401_Enigma_of_the_private_self_and_studies_of_the_I-am-me_experience_Towards_a_phenomenological_approach_to_the_development_of_the_subjective_self }}</ref> Japanese philosopher [[Hitoshi Nagai]] has used the concept of first person perspectives as a way of defining the self, defining the self as the "one who directly experiences the consciousness of oneself".<ref>* Why Isn’t Consciousness Real? (1) ''Philosophia Osaka'' No. 6, 2011:41-61 [http://hnagai.web.fc2.com/why_isnt_consciousness_real_day1.pdf PDF]</ref>

Similar ideas have been discussed by [[Thomas Nagel]] in the book ''[[The View from Nowhere]]''. It contrasts passive and active points of view in how humanity interacts with the world, relying either on a subjective perspective that reflects a point of view or an objective perspective that takes a more detached perspective.<ref name="MindsAndBodies">{{cite book |last1=McGinn |first1=Colin |title=Minds and Bodies: Philosophers and Their Ideas |date=1997 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-511355-6 }}{{pn|date=January 2022}}</ref>  Nagel describes the objective perspective as the "view from nowhere", one where the only valuable ideas are ones derived independently.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thomas |first1=Alan |title=Thomas Nagel |date=2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-49418-8 }}{{pn|date=August 2024}}</ref>