Mary Edwards, Cardiff University, 'The Self-Body Relation: A New Sartrean Account' 

In this presentation, I propose that Sartre’s theory of the self is rooted in a radically new conception of the self-body relation. I begin by constellating Sartre’s ideas about the self to illuminate some distinctive features of his theory of the self. Then, I explain how this theory generates two puzzles, before showing that both puzzles can be resolved if we endorse the view of the self-body relation that I take to be implicit in Sartre’s analysis of impersonation in The Imaginary (L’Imaginaire, 1940). Finally, I suggest that this Sartrean understanding of the relation of the self to the body not only enables us to interpret Sartre’s oeuvre in a more coherent way but that it also paves the way toward a novel solution to the epistemological problem of other minds.