Questions tagged [self]
The self tag has no summary.
21 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 ...
- 2,718
2
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2
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284
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Is the notion of a "self" that persists over time an illusion?
If I define "myself" as "my body," my body is constantly changing. At some time t₁, my body corresponds to a specific arrangement of elementary particles. At a different time t₂, ...
user80226
5
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1
answer
857
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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 ...
- 28.2k
2
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2
answers
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Which branch combines solipsism and monism?
Which branch of philosophy whole-heartedly accepts (and builds upon) that only self exists (solipsism) and the universe is the part/creation of self (monism) by eliminating the possibility of ...
- 311
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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 ...
- 125
4
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3
answers
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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 ...
- 4,454
5
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2
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570
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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 ...
- 2,391
-3
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3
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Can a person's 'sense of self' be transported across spacetime?
Let us assume that transportation of human beings (and other objects) is possible (maybe in the future), and we have the technology to do so. (Please don't debate the scientific plausibility of this.)
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7
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2
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321
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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 ...
- 2,209
7
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13
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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 ...
user52804
5
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3
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820
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Does the existence of colors give evidence against materialism?
It seems to me the only thing about colors that can be understood rationally is that they are distinct. We interact with other people who for the most part label my red as their red, my green as their ...
- 406
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5
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Is self-awareness necessary to consciousness?
In the act of thought, we often distinguish between the thinking itself and the awareness that 'I am thinking,' representing the thinker. But because the “thinker” is themself a manifestation of ...
- 59
4
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1
answer
194
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"Maslow, and Freud and _____X____ ?". I would like help filling in the blank. Understanding the composition of one's self
EDIT: By choice of phrasing of question, I did not mean to convey awareness and endorsement of all works of Maslow and Freud, and I most certainly do not have such awareness, and so cannot/do not ...
- 2,142
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7
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Does asking counterfactual questions about the context/conditions of one's birth presuppose the existence of souls? [closed]
If I ask the question "Why was I born in this body and not in another body?" or similar variations such as "Why didn’t I have different parents?" or "Why was I born on this ...
user80226
4
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2
answers
708
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Does Teleonomic Matter imply Subjectivity without Identity? [closed]
The matter part is a term used by David Krakauer about the goal oriented matter. Someone I was talking to mentioned how this is an example of subjectivity without identity but from what I read it’s ...
- 894