I-concept

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The I-concept or I-thought, the idea of one's own I, or the associated I-imagination, the mental representation of the I in earthly consciousness, arises from the fact that the I experiences itself in its earthly body and sees itself confronted with the sensual outside world through its organs. The I-concept is the first concept that the human being consciously forms in earthly life, around the third year of life. However, the I-concept is only an unreal image of the real I.

„We have to ask ourselves one question: Do we find the I among all those things that confront us in the outer world, that we experience from morning to evening? If you ask yourself this question in an unbiased way, you will be able to say to yourself: In all that I have as experiences of the outer world, on which my ideas, sensations and impulses of will lean, I do not find the I. From no outer world can the I be found. The I-thought cannot appear to me from any outer world, yet it is there from the moment I wake up until the moment I fall asleep. - What can that be which lives in the soul from the moment of waking until the moment of falling asleep, which can always be found in the flood of our ideas, states of mind and impulses of will, and yet which can be extinguished the moment we fall asleep? Since it cannot be found in the outer world, it must be sought for its origin in our own inner world. But our own inner world is again such that we extinguish that which we have as our own I in normal consciousness. There is not a single one in the whole wafting circle of concepts that man can form who could really bring such a fact to understanding except the one who assumes that this, which is given by no outer world, appears as the I-thought as the normal consciousness has it, is not a reality in the same way, for a reality could not disappear in the same way as the I-thought disappears in sleep. This I-thought is not a reality. What then is it? If it is not a reality, then there is no other way of understanding the matter than to suppose that it is an image, but an image which cannot become us in the wide circle of our world of experience, but which we can only arrive at through a comparison, the comparison of man with his mirror image. Let us assume that a person has never had the opportunity to see his own face. He would then feel the same about his exterior as he does about his I. The normal consciousness always experiences the I only as an image; it cannot find out what this I is, just as a person cannot look at his face on the outside. But when he steps in front of the mirror, his face appears to him, but it is the image of his face. And when he looks around, what is reflected? If he were to look around, he would see tables, chairs and the like. But not everything that is around him is reflected. But if he can say that it is something that he does not have in his surroundings, that is only reflected to him - for nothing that is there can at first be reflected in our consciousness in the way that the I shows itself - then it is our own being, to which, however, the I does not at first come in normal consciousness, but experiences it in the mirror image. And as true as that which is not there cannot be reflected, so true must the I be there, because it is reflected and because the cause of the mirror image cannot be something else. A single glance at the facts of the world suffices to prove that this is true. Therefore we must say: Since man's I is at first only given in the mirror image, it can disappear, just as the mirror image of our face disappears when we no longer look into the mirror. An image can disappear, reality remains, it is there, even though we do not perceive it. For anyone who wanted to dispute the correctness of the last sentence would have to claim that only what man perceives exists. He would very soon realise the absurdity of this proposition as soon as he followed its consequences.

Thus we must say: In the I-thought we do not at first have a reality. But we gain from it the possibility of presupposing a reality of our I.“ (Lit.:GA 61, p. 454ff)

Literature

German
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.
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