This large book is a portrait of the
complexity of the subjective self objectively situated. It is an
interdisciplinary account that draws upon philosophy, contemporary psychology
and semiotics using illustrations from literature, music and the visual arts.
The tone adopted by Harwood Fisher, an independent scholar, lecturer, and
consultant, is rhetorically explorative, which makes for a rather dense read.

The basic problem that drives the book is we conceive
our selves–how the self can, in fact, be both the object and the subjective
originator of its surroundings. The vehicle that is used is metaphor, which
Fisher suggests is proposals based on feelings. The metaphorical account allows
him to layer different feelings as one might layer oil paint in the making of a
picture.

The key to the depiction of both aspects
of the self: subjectivity and objective becomes possible, according to Fisher,
by visualizing the self in a logical space. From this standpoint the self tests
out metaphors and describes what it desires, sees, and encounters by means of
categories. Fisher sees this as an essentially creative cognitive process and a
generative linguistic process. As a generative linguistic process, this
development of categories, or "bracketing," allows the self to be a
witness to its own thoughts, gain new levels of awareness, realize its agenthood
and empower its own identity.

The enframement of mental categories are
projected into mental space where they become objectified, thus allowing the
self to be perceived and perceive itself as a stable identity. In elaborating
this theory, Fisher extends the ideas of Kurt Lewin, Jean Piaget, and C. S.
Peirce, among others. By drawing on each of these thinkers, he is able to bring
their common themes of perspective and construction together in his portrait of
the self as a creative iconic space.

The book is divided into six sections, or
groupings, as Fisher calls them.
Unlike the usual book divisions, these groupings provide a spiraling structure
to the themes (Appendix A describes in great detail the paradigm of a spiraling
structure of the ontology of metaphor).  In the book one aspect of the
spiral is the twisting by which subjectivity emerges, only to be turned back
into concealment. This conflict is central to the themes of the book, and it
comes back in different disciplines and traditions and in different historical
contexts, beyond the book.

Grouping one introduces the themes. In
groupings two to four of the book, these themes are shown as conflicts over
subjectivity.  The issues work their spirals of overt concern over the
individual and the inevitable abandonment of the subjective elements. The
spiral rises and falls not only in Lewin’s classical view of person and self,
but also in post-modern conceptions that are constructionist, computational,
and neo-Darwinian.  

In groupings five and six of the book, the
ideas that were almost tacit come to the fore.  Fisher draws the self by
visually depicting processes, such as its creating metaphors and developing
categories, and he shows how its products in thought and language are
schematically constructed and viewable.  

As I’ve intimated earlier, this is not an
easy book and there are areas that beg intensive critique. This book review,
however, is not the place to introduce such a critique. Suffice to say, this
book is thought-provoking and contributes much to the consciousness debate.
Recommended.

© 2004
Elizabeth McCardell

Elizabeth McCardell, PhD,
Independent scholar, Australia.

Categories: Philosophical