Is there a “self”? Or not? A new - Tibetan - IEET contributor examines the notion of “personal identity” via both Western and Eastern philosophies.
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Complete entry
Posted by
SHaGGGz on 08/19 at 07:38 AM
The trivial truth that the self does not exist is but one fact within the broader context of mereological nihilism: objecthood does not exist. However, the notion of objecthood is deeply wired into our neurology because in an evolutionary context it is more advantageous to see a lion or a person or what have you as a discrete, unified, self-contained object/agent than see it for what it “really” is, a loosely coupled, ever-shifting agglomeration of energy waves.
Posted by
Peter Wicks on 08/19 at 07:52 AM
@SHaGGGz
I agree with you, as usual. What is more interesting from my perspective, having established that identity is a psychological identity (the word “mere” in the last sentence of the article is prejudicial), is to consider how this psychological identity is likely to evolve as man merges with machine, and as minds merge with other minds via high-bandwidth technology-mediated communication. Or as an even better question: how do we WANT it to evolve.
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