Philosophy Now Forum

Following on from our last issue, Raymond Tallis defends personal identity from those who say the self is an illusion.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/63/Saving_the_Self

Philosophy Now wrote: the self is not a thing: we cannot be ourselves as an oak tree is an oak tree.

There is a confusion here between the noumena and the phenomena.

The oak tree is not actually known to be an oak tree, all that can be asserted is that the there is a perception of an oak tree as an oak tree.

In the same way there can be a perception of the self as the self.

You can label them both as being 'fictional' or both as being 'real', but you cannot say that one is 'fictional' and the other is 'real'.

the "enduring" self is always in the past tense (and memory fades) ...

and the "present" self remains in constant flux...

-Imp