what does self evident mean

Self-evident means that something is clear or obvious without needing any proof or explanation. In epistemology, a self-evident proposition is a proposition that is known to be true by understanding its meaning without proof, and/or by ordinary human reason. For example, the belief that oneself is conscious and possesses free will are offered as examples of self-evidence, but the belief that someone else is conscious or has free will is not epistemically self-evident. In informal speech, self-evident often merely means obvious, but the epistemological definition is stricter.