Self-reference occurs in natural or formal languages when a sentence or formula refers to itself. The reference may be expressed either directly; through some intermediate sentence or formula; or by means of some encoding. In philosophy, it also refers to the ability of a subject to speak of or refer to himself, herself, or itself: to have the kind of thought expressed by the first person pronoun, the word "I" in English. Self-reference is relate...
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Self-reference occurs in natural or formal languages when a sentence or formula refers to itself. The reference may be expressed either directly; through some intermediate sentence or formula; or by means of some encoding. In philosophy, it also refers to the ability of a subject to speak of or refer to himself, herself, or itself: to have the kind of thought expressed by the first person pronoun, the word "I" in English. Self-reference is related to self-reflexivity and apperception.
Self-reference is studied and has applications in mathematics, philosophy, computer programming, and linguistics. Self-referential statements sometimes have paradoxical behavior.
An example of a self-referential situation is the one of autopoiesis, as the logical organization produces itself the physical structure which creates itself.
In metaphysics, self-reference is subjectivity, while "hetero-reference", as it is called (see Niklas Luhmann), is objectivity.
Self-reference also occurs in literature...
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