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Title: What is the self? Post by: b on Apr 08, 2016 04:09 am The famous british philosopher David Hume apparently looked into the question of the self. I read online that he may have had some contact with eastern philosophy through the Jesuits in France although that should be taken as only a supposition. His method, as described by this speaker, sounds strikingly similar to the kind of enquiry that Sri Ramana Maharshi encouraged people to engage in. And the conclusion seems the same as well. This can be found in Hume's Treatise on Human Nature which I have not read.
If you accept his statements, you must conclude from this that there is no true self. This makes conventional advice such as 'be yourself' or 'be who you really are' null and void. Because there is no such thing as you in a concrete sense. You only become you by doing things and relating to people. The self is like an afterthought or a reflection. Title: Re: What is the self? Post by: b on Apr 08, 2016 04:19 am https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2880HINZv2s
Title: Re: What is the self? Post by: guest88 on Apr 08, 2016 06:15 pm Thanks for the contributions. I'll have to check these out today, they're in line with my recent thoughts...
What are thoughts? What are memories? What defines a person? Cheers Title: Re: What is the self? Post by: b on Apr 10, 2016 04:44 am Is the self a meta-program?
Quote Metaprogramming is the writing of computer programs with the ability to treat programs as their data. It means that a program could be designed to read, generate, analyse or transform other programs, and even modify itself while running. - Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaprogramming Title: Re: What is the self? Post by: SI on Apr 10, 2016 05:56 am This very idea came to me years ago when I first started building programs, (programs that can write another program)
really for me it means the program should be built in a way that does not need administration, and provides enough interfaces to allow it to be manipulated if need be, without further building or add-ons. The self could be something along those lines. Pure thought though, seems to be always adding to the existing program, always enhancing or adding features, then the contemplation/dissemination process and implementation of the new thoughts. Title: Re: What is the self? Post by: b on Apr 10, 2016 07:47 am This very idea came to me years ago when I first started building programs, (programs that can write another program) really for me it means the program should be built in a way that does not need administration, and provides enough interfaces to allow it to be manipulated if need be, without further building or add-ons. Neat. Quote The self could be something along those lines. Pure thought though, seems to be always adding to the existing program, always enhancing or adding features, then the contemplation/dissemination process and implementation of the new thoughts. Would you mind giving clarification? I don't follow you. Title: Re: What is the self? Post by: SI on Apr 10, 2016 08:37 pm Quote The self could be something along those lines. Pure thought though, seems to be always adding to the existing program, always enhancing or adding features, then the contemplation/dissemination process and implementation of the new thoughts. Would you mind giving clarification? I don't follow you. I'm just thinking that thought, seems to have much more complexity to it than a programmatic process. |