„Kto jest kontrolerem?” Problem podmiotu i świadomego „ja” we współczesnej psychologii kognitywnej
“Who is the controller?” Agent, consciousness and “self” in light of contemporary cognitive psychology

Summary/Abstract: Categories such as: “consciousness”, “self”, “agent” – after decades of absence – regain recognition as a specific novelty in the field of cognitive psychology (cognitive sciences and related disciplines: social cognition, cognitive neuroscience, social neuroscience, etc.). In this context, a particular approach towards the person and the nature of his /her actions emerges. The main mark of this approach seems to undermine our commonsense convictions on the man’s functioning as a conscious agent who controls the course of his actions according to his conscious plans, intentions or will: an increasing amount of evidence indicates that complex processes responsible for human behavior do not require awareness; an important class of these unconscious processes is automatic: we are only aware of some of their effects. The text provides a number of empirically grounded arguments (advanced especially in the field of social cognition and neuroscience) in favor of the thesis mentioned above. Some evidence confirms a significant role of so called “cognitive unconsciousness” in various complex mental processes, although this raises some questions. Just to name some of the key difficulties: Who (if not the conscious “I”) is the controller of one’s own behavior and who guides it? What do we need consciousness for? What is the role of human sense of agency and a subjective experience of the will? And finally, to bring forward the fundamental one: can a scientific theory deal with the category of an ‘agent as such’?

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