Something {self, cognition} about people provides agency and identity. Selves persist through amnesia, sensory deprivation, minimal information, body-perception loss, distorted perceptions, and hallucinations.
agency
Selves have will and control and perform actions. Selves have a continuous history as agents in space and time {narrative self, agent}.
identity
People feel personal identity, unity, unique individuality, and continuity. Perception continuity implies permanent, unified, and immaterial self. Selves are aware of themselves.
subject
Selves are subjects of conscious experiences. Selves {embodied self} have proprioception related to physical body. Selves are in bodies. Selves are also objects.
self and other
Ideas of self and not-self can be innate and develop as verbal concepts develop. Organisms must categorize what they can encounter as prey, predator, self, same-sex species member, or opposite-sex species member. Knowledge of self or not-self controls action inhibition or permission. Subject, person, I, or self involves self-protection.
memory
"I am who I remember myself being" is an idea about subjective self.
reference
Self is always something and is never a property of something. Self always refers to same thing.
reference point
Self is body reference point in space and time. Observation point causes viewpoint [Gallagher and Shear, 1999] [Hurley, 1998].
soul
Self can be or have soul [Augustine, 427] [Brown et al., 1998] [McMullin, 2000] [Murphy, 1998] [Sloan, 2000].
alternatives: composite
Though they seem to have unity, selves have several functions.
alternatives: no continuity
Though selves seem to stay the same, split-brain patients, multiple personalities, and self disorders indicate that selves do not have personal identity and continuity.
alternatives: no integration
Though selves seem to have beliefs, thoughts, and memories, brain processes these concepts at myriad places, so integration is fleeting.
alternatives: no person
Though selves seem to have personality, motivations and behaviors have multiple sources.
alternatives: no unity
Though selves seem to be just one observer, split-brain patients, multiple personalities, and self disorders indicate that selves do not have unity.
alternatives: no non-physical self
Though selves seem to have unique type, non-physical substance cannot affect physical brain.
alternatives: no self
Perhaps, there is no self.
alternatives: only collection
Though selves seem to be at experience centers, they are only experience collections.
alternatives: only referral
Perhaps, self is center of three-dimensional space and one-dimensional time created by spatial and temporal referral.
causes: coordination
Selves result from body-movement and sensation covariance, which distinguishes self from background environment and other organisms.
causes: society
Psychological properties cause psychological reactions in other people, which people can recognize by comparison with their psychological properties, and so create ideas of self, others, and their relations.
brain damage
Temporary or permanent brain damage can cause loss of aspects of self [Ehrlich, 2000] [Ramachandran, 2004]. Past, present, or future can be unusable. Selves can become discontinuous. Self can seem to be outside body. People can lose will and agency. Self-awareness can end. Selves end at death.
teletransporter
Imagine that machines can analyze all body cells, molecules, and momenta and can use that information, and necessary raw materials, to recreate exactly that body and brain anywhere, with no errors {teletransporter} [Parfit, 1984] [Parfit, 1987]. Imagine also that the machines destroy original body. Now imagine that machines can destroy and re-create body parts in same places.
Social Sciences>Psychology>Cognition>Self
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Date Modified: 2022.0224