The polysemy of “I”

Orthodoxy assumes that the first‐person thoughts of an individual are anchored to a stable object. I challenge this assumption by arguing that “I” is polysemous. The perspectival anchor of a first‐person thought could be the bearer of the thought, the agent, the bearer of perception, or a body, to name just a few options. These different possible anchors do not form a unity. So, a unified or minimal self cannot, without argument, be posited as the stable anchor of an individual's first‐person thoughts. I show how the polysemy of “I” can be analyzed in terms of polysemous mental files.