I. Self-Representation, Selfless-Representation

What is a representation? This concept can be understood in at least two ways: on the one hand, the representation of an object by an object ; on the other hand, the representation of an object by a subject. Subjective representation always appears as ‘self’-representation, a representation which only is what it is through self-presence. The representation that I have of the table that I see before me only remains what it is as long as it is my representation, and not someone else’s. If some other person takes my place in front of this table and obtains a visual representation of it, she will undoubtedly self-represent the same object, but she will not have the same representation of it, because this will be her representation, and not mine.

On the other hand, a painting that represents a landscape does not self -represent the landscape that it represents. The painting is not a subject. I can self-represent the painting, as the person next to me can, and we will undoubtedly have partially different representations, but we will have these various meta-representations of one and the same representation.

Self-presence thus allows us to distinguish two representations: those which define a self (sight, hearing, imagination, and so on), and those which define an object (painting, music, film, and so on) which does not have a self or has a self no more. Of course, one will notice that a painting needs to be painted to be able to exist as a painting, and that it was necessary that a being who self -represents made a representative object of it. However, once painted, the painting as an object gives a representation that does not self -represent what it represents. The painting does not see what it shows.