Mind, Awareness, and Self-Awareness.
The terminology isn't necessarily universally accepted,
but I hope the essence will be clear.
I'm writing in translation.
1. The first is Awareness
as noticing, recording something within oneself, witnessing,
or outside oneself.
But here I'm writing primarily about Awareness within and of oneself.
We can Awareness, Witness, individual feelings, images...
2. Next comes Self-Awareness, Witnessing, and the Self-Image.
This is Awareness, Witnessing of something,
sensations, images...
specifically in the context of
Awareness of oneself as an Individual.
I'll note that we're not talking here about the image of oneself as a Person (Social Role...),
and not just about a Visual Image,
but, ideally, about a holistic Self-Image,
which includes both Kinesthetic... images.
Perhaps Self-awareness and Witnessing are inherent to some extent in all living organisms,
but to a high degree they are inherent in mammals, and, admittedly, in Humans.
This inherent property can be defined
as the ability to experience oneself as an organism in a holistic manner.
This property is inextricably linked
with the capacity for self-survival,
because the absence of a desire for integrity,
by definition, contradicts the preservation of this integrity.
As a proven fact, this can be seen
as the results of experiments on self-recognition in a mirror.
It has been experimentally proven
that many mammals can recognize themselves in a mirror.
This, indirectly, proves
that animals also possess a Self-Image
as a whole.
Otherwise, any significant rapid
self-recognition in a mirror would not be possible.
This is especially evident in the case of non-primates.
3. Awareness of Self-Awareness, Witnessing, and Self-Image.
I believe the highest degree of self-awareness and Witnessing,
leaving aside exotic transcendental states,
is awareness of the process of self-awareness,
and Self-Image.
Awareness of Self-awareness as the Integrity of oneself,
figuratively speaking, closes the circle of self-awareness, Witnessing.
I think that it is precisely
Awareness of Self-awareness that "makes" a Human a holistic Subject.
The question of the quality of self-awareness is a separate topic,
but to a certain extent,
the quality of Self-awareness, Witnessing, is an important condition,
which ensures the stability of the integrity of the Self.
A little about how this works in nature.
Self-awareness of oneself as a holistic organism
occurs on the basis of Self-awareness, Witnessing oneself "Here and Now."
That is, awareness, including of bodily sensations,
and further, thoughts, concepts...
I emphasize this here,
since awareness, Witnessing, thoughts
(thinking in general),
are often viewed in isolation. However, I raise the question of integrity.
A bit of an aside.
There's a common belief that "the eye doesn't see itself."
I think this is a misconception.
The eye, like other receptors, does see "itself."
This can be demonstrated simply, but indirectly, using, for example, thermal receptors.
When you're feeling well,
you can easily separate
the image of weather conditions from the sensations they evoke.
That is, you can become aware, for example,
of simply your hand with the sensations present,
which, as experience "says," are caused by the outside temperature.
I think it's essentially the same with other receptors.
Perhaps, what's stated above
makes sense to call Reason,
as the "opposite" of the purely logical Mind and Intuition.
27.11.2025 Sergiy (Sergiy_f1) Chernyshov