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Questions tagged [self]

91 questions
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Why am I this particular human being?

Some philosophers dismiss this as a question about a tautology: when Alice asks "Why am I Alice?", this is equivalent to her asking "Why is Alice Alice?", which is not an interesting question. But other philosophers believe that, from a…
present
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If I upload my brain into a computer is it still me?

I think the answer is yes but I know a lot of people disagree. So, I would like to ask these people when exactly does it stop being me. Let's say I want to upload my brain into a computer using the following procedure: I have each of my neurons…
digital brain
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3 answers

Gender roles - do they matter?

This may well be too broad (spreading over into psychology too), I'll try to narrow it down as I outline my thinking but any advice is welcome. I began by thinking about how its unfair if you identify as one gender and are treated as another. So…
FreeElk
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Are there any Western philosophies that present views similar to the No-self view of Buddhism?

Can similarities be found in western philosophy with the eastern concept of self (no-self) in Buddhism? In Buddhism the no-self is called anatman. Buddha spoke about the emptiness of the form, in the sense that the form is the physical body, and the…
Di Ana
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Does self-awareness have a time span?

I recall as a young child that I didn't quite recognize that the "me" of tomorrow and the "me" of yesterday was quite the same as myself today. Once a punishment for a misdeed got delayed until tomorrow, which made me very happy; the next day the…
Michael
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Does personal identity (the self) have to belong to a conscious being?

How can what is empty know itself unless there is some intelligence present? It can't. That's like expecting the eye that can see so many objects, to see it self; it cannot. Likewise, the self cannot see itself unless it does some kind of trick to…
James Brewer
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If our “self” is the sum of our parts, why do we feel continuity?

An introduction I've been feeling a very strong "death anxiety" for at least a week now. It's been really affecting my output, and - even though I understand it's irrational (maybe?) - I can't avoid slipping into this topic anytime I'm thinking…
Jasper Lutz Severino
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Is reincarnation inevitable?

My reasoning: Suppose the universe is infinite in spacetime (both space and time have no bounds). In this spacetime, a cyclic appearance of particles occurs (cyclic big bangs). When I'm alive I experience this spacetime. When I'm dead these…
user52804
6
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2 answers

Psychoanalysis and the ontologization of the self

I'm very interested in psychoanalysis ontologization of the "self"-concept meaning: The idea that there is a self - a continuous entity with some inner dynamic, that we must fight (defense mechanism) to preserve, and that the disintegration of such…
Jakob
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What is the best philosophical expression for the "mutual containment" of mind and body?

The old "ouroboros" of mind and body reappears in various forms. Basically, the world is formed within consciousness; consciousness is formed within the brain; the brain is formed within the world. What is the most lucid description of this in the…
Nelson Alexander
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Why does the eastern teaching of no-self be so difficult to accept, as an actuality and not as a weird claim, by western thought?

In West, self is seen as a precious concept, central to everyday life decisions. On the opposite, Western stretches the illusory nature of a permanent entity. It seems to be there such an huge difference, and the understanding of it seems difficult,…
Di Ana
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5
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Self identity in present day society

When we left back frames of reference like being an aristocrat, or religion and nation, or what kind of consumer and of what brands we are, what is left? How do we self-identify in the XXI century? Do contemporary philosophers treat topic about how…
Quora Feans
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3 answers

Distinction between two types of self

Teleporting persons and multiple "you's" are discussed in serious thought experiments in physics and philosophy. I feel like most of the time these scenarios come up, I would not make the same assumptions I feel the experimenters do however. The…
J Kusin
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How does Kant rule out permanent soul in his argument for the existence of external world?

I have been studying Stephan Körner's intro to Kant's philosophy. I'm not sure if in the following excerpt I make sense of the reasoning quoted from Kant. In fact, I wonder how the permanence must be something outside him by the virtue of its…
infatuated
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Does materialism presuppose that a self is a bundle of mental states and perceptions?

The physicalist/materialist (going forward I'll use the two interchangeably) position on the mind body problem is the following: Nothing exits besides the physical and therefore the mind is just a combination of the various states and…
Alexander S King
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