“Conscius sum, ergo sum?”: Phenomenal Manifestations of Human Self-Determination in the Context of Consciousness

Abstract

The study offers a comprehensive substantiation of the phenomenal manifestations of human self-determination within the problematic field of the spherical life-flow of consciousness. Consciousness is interpreted as the highest substantial form of human existence, which, despite lacking its own psychic modality, manifests itself phenomenally – primarily through acts of experiencing, awareness, and interpretation of internal causations and external influences. Its content is defined as a complex, multidimensional structure – a dynamic act of making sense of oneself in the world and dialogue with one’s own ipse-being (here-being), which integrates cognitive, affective, regulative, and existential components and forms the foundation of identity, responsibility, and the personal meaningfulness of life. The organization of self-awareness is analyzed through the content dimensions of self-knowledge, self-attitude, self-regulation, and self-apprehension, which enabled the identification of its specific functions in the process of self-determination: enabling knowledge and awareness of one’s self through self-observation, reflection, and experience interpretation; forming emotional self-attitudes through self-esteem and self-acceptance; volitional implementation of behavior and activity via self-control and self-regulation; and contributing to the formation of identity and existential coherence of ipse-being. The phenomena of self-awareness are considered as modular nodes that ensure the individual’s capacity for self-knowledge, self-control, self-assessment, and reflection. Self-determination is revealed as an intra-personal process that unfolds within the horizon of self-awareness, encompassing the subject’s awareness of their self, value system, life orientations, and ability for reflexive choice in the acknowledgement of their existence. This process potentially leads to self-development, self-realization, and self-fulfillment within a specific sociocultural context. Defining this self-related phenomenon as a key integrative principle of self-awareness made it possible to comprehend its significance as a coordinating and directing sense-meaning center. It also enabled its interpretation in value-reflexive and existential dimensions and conditioned the fundamentality of its role in interpreting the foundations and preconditions of comprehending one’s everyday being, making free and responsible choices, and engaging in spiritual-personal self-creation along a unique individual life path. Simultaneously, the phenomenal manifestations of self-determination are described through the lens of the principles, patterns, and normative foundations of A. V. Furman’s act-cyclical approach – as a dynamic, deeply personal, and value-laden construct that specifies the cognitive, emotional, regulative, and existential means of self-functioning, the continuity and cyclicality of deep personal development, and the prospect of the act of self-determination as an actualized channel of inner integration, self-production, and psycho-symbolic participation in expanding the horizons of self-awareness. The study also outlines the enduring significance of the functional dimensions of self-awareness (personal resources and conceptual means of self-determination) and substantiates the necessity of their effective engagement in the processual flow of harmonized personal development, progressive movement toward the realization of one’s vital needs, individual motives, and existential values, interaction with the cultural space, and the creation of socially meaningful semantic fields. The prospects for further research are defined as the empirical substantiation of the phenomenal expressions of human self-determination within the spherical reality of self-awareness.