So how do you define the self? What precisely is the self?
I support mind/brain identity. I don't define the self as distinct from the body. The body is the soul, and the soul the body. They are just semantically different (i.e. subject/object).
According to Dr. Ramachandran, there are five aspects of self, all of which emerges from the brain:
Continuity: Memory (I.E. past, present, and future.)
Coherence of Self: We experience ourselves as one person.
Embodiment and Ownership: We feel anchored to our bodies.
Free Will.
Self Awareness.
I am going to discuss the aspect of Embodiment and ownership:
The brain creates a "body-image," by mapping out the body on the somatosensory cortex. This is just one value to the formula that equates to the self.
from another thread:
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cynic said:
Despite what you have been told in high school, we have more than five senses. Proprioception and kinesthesis is a "hidden" sense that we take for granted. It is the sense of body position and movement, which emerges from the somatosensory cortex of the parietal lobes. Vision and the vestibular system contribute to a sense of body as well.
In Oliver Sach's book "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat," (1985) he describes one of his patients who suffered from an infection in her spinal fluid. The result was a loss of proprioception, which created a dreadful sense of disembodiment.
Now consider vision and the representation of the visual field in the brain. Your entire field of vision is mapped out in the lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus and the visual cortex. We have a "theater" in the mind. The neurons in these cortical and subcortical regions fire to represent everything we see.
Analogically, the somatosensory cortex maps out the entire body, creating a body-image. These neurons fire to represent every part of your body, and is responsible for not only skin sensation, but proprioception and kinesthesis as well. So, if the rest of your body is somehow disconnected from these neurons (via spinal cord), it would be in a sense similar to ablating the optic nerve that travels to the visual cortex --resulting in blindness. However in this case, there is no active neural representation of the body. This is hard to imagine, as in the case of the "disembodied woman." It is better explained in her own words: "This 'proprioception' is like the eyes of the body, the way the body sees itself. And if it goes, as it's gone with me, it's like the body's blind."
I should note the phenomenon of Phantom Limb Syndrome. Phantom limb occurs in many amputees. Although the physical limb is no longer there, the sense of proprioception and kinesthesis remain intact. Even people who are born without arms can sense the pointing of a phantom finger.
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Every neuron in your brain fires to represent a specific aspect of subjective reality, whether it is your body-image, or an image of the three dimensional world around you. Ablation to groups of neurons will significantly alter ones perception of reality. Even the sense of self-existence emerges from the brain. This seems to cease in Cotards Syndrome, or Depersonalization Disorder. We all have moments of depersonalization, when we feel as though we are not really there; as if we were viewing ourselves in the third person.
Electrical stimulation of the angular gyrus causes an out-of-body experience, where one feels themselves floating outside of their body. My assumption is that the angular gyrus is somehow responsible for anchoring the "body-image" to our actual bodies, with the help of visual feedback.
Is the self the same as consciousness?
The words can be synonymous and are inter-changeable, but I believe their is a slight distinction. I believe many animals are conscious and aware, however are not capable of a self-metarepresentation, or self-schema, therefore are not capable of self-awareness or self reflection like a human being.
When you think of yourself do you think of your conscious awareness as yourself? Is the self something beyond consciousness? Does it transcend what you can be consciously aware of?
I think conscious awareness as an integral value in a formula that equates to the totality of my being.
Is the self transitory or permanent? Is it ever changing, or is their something essential about it that never changes?
The self is in a constant state of continual growth. The self dissolves when you sleep, and it will dissolve when you die.
What relationship is there, if any, between the self and such things as greed, lust, gluttony, etc.? Is the self naturally grasping? Does it naturally tend to aggrandize itself?
Our selves revolve entirely around survival. We have multiple drives and instincts, all of which can be profoundly explained with evolutionary psychology.
Can the self be transcended?
It is noted that temporal lobe epilepsy has a correlation to mystical experience. I believe the sense of transcendence also emerges from the brain.
From another aspect; the sense of individuality is illusory. We are pieces of the universe, made up of the elements concocted by exploding stars, of which is a larger whole. The self cannot be separate from the macrocosm that is all of existence. It is from the macrocosm that the self emerges. I believe that "enlightenment" involves one's realization of the self and it's relationship to the whole, a "Oneness" schema if you will.
Is the self in some sense a cause of suffering? If so, in what sense is that?
Suffering is natural and conducive to survival. For example, society is a great source of emotional suffering (creating fear of rejection, loneliness, embarrassment, etc; all of which are conducive to group cohesion.)
We can, however, cause our own suffering in many ways, (I.E. self-hatred, unacceptance of self).
