Selfhood is the organized continuity of agency, evaluation, cognition, and interaction through which a living system persists as a distinct centre of significance across changing conditions.
APS distinguishes selfhood from individuality, consciousness, and narrative identity. An organism may be an individual without possessing the richer forms of selfhood found in more cognitively integrated systems. Likewise, selfhood does not require reflective awareness or language.
Selfhood emerges as evaluative and cognitive processes become increasingly organized around the persistence of a particular agent. Experiences, actions, memories, expectations, and interactions become coordinated through a continuing centre for whom conditions matter.
Human narrative identity represents one highly developed form of selfhood, but the roots of selfhood extend more deeply into biological organization.
APS Summary: Selfhood is the organized continuity of agency, evaluation, cognition, and interaction through which a living system persists as a distinct centre of significance.