Cognitive Foundations of the Narrative Self

In this paper we tackle the issue of the role of narrative language in the constitution of human subjectivity. There are at least two different approaches to this issue. The first one is consistent with the view that language has a unique constitutive role in cognition. According to this account, human subjectivity is a by-product of the advent of language. We will refer to it as linguistic idealism and will argue that, in spite of its popularity in the philosophy and social sciences, this view is completely unfounded. We will defend a second approach, which acknowledges the relevant role of language in human subjectivity but interprets this role in the light of a relation of coevolution between language and cognition. We will suggest that this relation is asimmetric and the priority is given to the cognitive foundations of human sense of the self. The influence of language on human subjectivity is then analyzed in terms of a retroactive effect. We will argue that the relation of coevolution between language and cognition provides an interpretative tool that allows us to account for human subjectivity in accordance with darwinian naturalism