Is there a real you?
Eliane Mitchell

26 January 2018

Often we are told that spending time alone, meditating, taking the Meyers-Briggs test, or traveling abroad can aid us in our paths to "self-discovery." But to what lengths must any one person go to achieve this—to discover herself? And is there even such a thing as a "self" for one to discover?

In this fascinating TEDTalk,英国哲学家朱利安·巴吉尼(Julian Baggini)挑战了传统观念，即我们每个人都有一个核心或基本的“自我”等待我们去寻找。According to him, we are not beings whohave(and are thus external to) our opinions, beliefs, and memories, but are ourselves acompilation所有我们“拥有”和“是”的东西——我们的身体、认知能力、信念、欲望、感觉和经历。他认为，即使是大脑也仅仅是独立过程的集合，但正是因为这些过程之间的联系，我们才会感到自我意识。也就是说，我们“感觉”内心比实际更统一——他将这种现象称为“自我把戏”。

Check the TEDTalk, "Is there a real you?", out here:

https://www.ted.com/talks/julian_baggini_is_there_a_real_you/up-next#t-7...

Comments(3)

MJA's picture

MJA

Saturday, January 27, 2018 -- 7:54 AM

I found the infinite or

I found the infinite or immeasurable universe to be just me. =

Harold G. Neuman's picture

Harold G. Neuman

Monday, January 29, 2018 -- 11:36 AM

Baggini's notion is similar

Baggini's notion is similar to others I have crossed paths with, but I don't think I have ever heard it called "The Ego Trick". Interesting characterization. I suppose I can agree with him in the following limited measure: We are what we learn. This is true of homo sapiens sapiens generally. On an individual level, most of us who have average intelligence and manage to live long enough eventually develop some sense of self. If that is a trick, we are all tricksters, mmm? Conscious mind is, as Harris has noted, all we've got. I have myself theorized about consciousness and how/why/when our species, above all others (that we know of) was the chosen one. I've several notions, but will not go into those here, other than to say the compilation idea is pretty solid in my own view. Immeasurable universes aside, we are pretty damn lucky! Synchronicity had some hand in it all and all of that took time. Seems to me...
Is what we learn the summation of our reality? Well, no----not exactly.

Samar Almont's picture

Samar Almont

Tuesday, April 9, 2019 -- 7:46 PM

You go back to the same trick

You go back to the same trick when you say 'our reality' We are never really aware of a total reality (I use this term loosely) that exists for every human being or even for my own self. If we don't know what reality is in its totality then we can't really explain how we arrive at something we don't know.

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