empirical ego

noun

In the thought of Immanuel Kant and Edmund Husserl, the self of each person, understood as the locus of personality and capable of being known as an object by means of reflective awareness, in contrast with the transcendental ego which is always an experiencing subject.

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Meanings

nounempirical ego (plural empirical egos)

plural empirical egos

  1. human sciencesIn the thought of Immanuel Kant and Edmund Husserl, the self of each person, understood as the locus of personality and capable of being known as an object by means of reflective awareness, in contrast with the transcendental ego which is always an experiencing subject.

    The empirical ego is an object in the world, and, insofar as it is experienced and known, it must be subject to worldly causality.

    1977, David Carr, “Kant, Husserl, and the Nonempirical Ego”, in The Journal of Philosophy, volume 74, number 11, page 688
    1 more example

    When he debates, Shall I commit this crime? choose that profession? accept that office, or marry this fortune?—his choice really lies between one of several equally possible future Selves. What his entire empirical Ego shall become, is fixed by the conduct of this moment.

    1879, William James, “Are We Automata?”, in Mind, volume 4, number 13, page 13
Cite this entry
APA

empirical ego. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/empirical%20ego

MLA

“empirical ego.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/empirical%20ego. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “empirical ego,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/empirical%20ego.

Source: empirical ego on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.