Is the self an illusion?
I don't mean from a hippy-dippy-trippy spiritualism perspective. I mean, from a cognitive neuroscience perspective: what is a self? I don't think we can find a part of the brain that's responsible for it, so it must be a construct, indistinguishable from self-concept. Moreover, Kahneman's work suggests that there are multiple "selves" with different agendas. If so, what does that imply about identity, agency, responsibility, etc.?
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29 comments (26 - 29)
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Bill Self? Well, HE is real but his hair is an illusion. It's a bad toupee.
JeffMesser
Level 8
May 22, 2018
3
Ha ha ha!
The self is real, the world is an illusion.
doug6352
Level 7
May 22, 2018
2
yes!
I believe that human beings are arrogant to believe they are somehow superior to any other creature. If we believe in 'self' we may as well believe in a soul. We are a lump of jangled atoms, genetics, hormones and neurotransmitters.
Amisja
Level 8
May 22, 2018
4
the same awareness that flows thru us flows thru them also. it's just they don't have the same tools we do to communicate and feel.
@kauva Use the Force, Luke! What hogwash
@jwd45244 they called gravity hogwash as well until it could be explained.
@kauva No, they did not. They did not understand that it was a effect of two masses attracting each other. However, the observed the effects of gravity all day every day. Your hogwash is unobserved undetectable and plain silly.
you're not going to find it in the brain. it exists apart from us and within us.
JeffMesser
Level 8
May 22, 2018
1
What? Like bacteria?
I call Shenanigans
@jwd45244 really? OK, show me some gravity. Just a picture of it or maybe a teaspoon.
@JimmyM more like a rule of space. like gravity or probabilities.
@kauva Gravity waves have been detected. More than once I might add. Can you see wind or see its effects? Can you see magnetism or its effects? But, what does that have to do with the fact that I called shenanigans?
I notice that elsewhere you commend the Buddha's wisdom in not answering the question of whether the self exists without taking his advice. 
@jwd45244 and what about before they had the knowledge to prove gravity? did it not exist until then?
@kauva They saw that things fall down they may not have known why but they observed gravity every day. Your ideas are bs. You have the burden of proof. You have made some outrageous claims with nothing to back them up. Sounds like a religion.
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