From Self-Awareness to the Consciousness of the "Speaking Subject"

This paper concerns human language, which is linked to the process whereby the human brain developed and adapted to its environment via the body, the senses and the intelligence of the speaking subject. We can say, first, that the subject's unconscious reaction to the impact of a sensory percept, whether complex or not, is emotional stricto sensu and physiological; a statement produced in response to this impact still pertains to feeling. A fundamental point in the problem posed here and one that entails an epistemological revolution is that, in self-awareness, various levels of consciousness come into play. We shall see how these concepts can be organized into a coherent and relevant whole in order to put forward the following hypothesis: the eruption of emotion, strictly speaking, anticipates the production of language.