minään

Minän is a term that appears in some Finnish-language discussions of philosophy of mind and cognitive science to denote the self as experienced from the first-person perspective. It is used to distinguish the subjective sense of being an agent from external descriptions of behavior or bodily processes. The term is not standardized in major dictionaries or textbooks, and its meaning can vary across authors. In phenomenological and psychological contexts, minän is sometimes treated as the “inner self” or selfhood that underlies thoughts, actions, and identity over time, without connotations of ego in the psychoanalytic sense. Usage tends to emphasize subjectivity, presence, and continuity of experience rather than social roles or physical embodiment.

Etymology and form: minän is widely interpreted as a derivation from the Finnish pronoun minä (“I”) or as a constructed neologism for scholarly discussions. Because it is not a widely codified term, its exact morphological status can differ by text.

See also: Self, Subjectivity, Personal identity, Consciousness, Phenomenology.

Notes: As a relatively niche term, minän may not appear in standard Finnish dictionaries, and readers should consult the specific author’s definition when encountered in a text.