In several books and articles, Zahavi has defended the existence and significance of pre-reflective self-consciousness, and argued in favor of the idea that our experiential life is characterized by a form of self-consciousness that is more primitive and more fundamental than the reflective form of self-consciousness that one finds in various kinds of introspection.
Han har i adskillige bøger og artikler forsvaret eksistensen og betydningen af den før-refleksive selvbevidsthed, og argumenteret for at vores oplevelsesliv er kendetegnet ved en type selvbevidsthed som er mere fundamental end den refleksive form for selvbevidsthed man kan finde i f.eks. introspektionen.