Human Experience

Human experience here encompasses any behaviors (perceiving, doing, feeling) or events (happenings) that people are aware of, whether individually or collectively. It refers to the personal level at which humans perceive themselves and others interacting with their environment and, thus, to the type of phenomena typically studied by humanists and social scientists. It contrasts with the sub-personal levels studied by cognitive psychologists, neuroscientists, and biologists. When the building block approach refers to “human experience”, it always assumes (1) that humans are evolved social animals and (2) that subpersonal processes play a crucial role in enabling and constraining human experience.

References

• Dennett, Daniel. (2013). “The personal-subpersonal distinction.” In idem, Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking, 86-90. New York: W.W. Norton.