Self
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So rich and complex a work as this can hardly be expected to elicit the complete agreement of any reader, but I am persuaded that it will prove intellectually fecund for all. (Péter Lautner RHIZAI )
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Richard Sorabji presents a brilliant exploration of the history of our understanding of the self, which has remained elusive and mysterious throughout the spectacular development of human knowledge of the outside world. He ranges from ancient to contemporary thought, Western and Eastern, to reveal and assess the insights of a remarkable variety of thinkers. He discusses a set of topics which are at the heart of our understanding of ourselves: personal identity; memory; the importance of seeing one's life as a whole; the relation between self, intellect, will, and agency; self-awareness; the stream of consciousness; embodiment; death and survival. He rejects the view, found in various philosophical and religious writings, that the self is an illusion, and develops his own original conception of the self as essential to our ownership of our experience and our apprehension of the world.
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Although this book did not turn out to be quite what I expected and was hoping for, it would be absurd to give a work of such extraordinary erudition anything other than the full five stars. My philosophical interests are more in the area that is contiguous with neuroscience and cognitive psychology, so I guess I was hoping more for an analysis of Self as a cognitive construct. The book however is far more broad ranging in its scope, and sets out to be a comprehensive survey of notions of Self and its numerous relations to other concepts such as identity, continuity, birth and death, ownership, justice, responsibility, and so on. Sorabji's evident total grasp of Aristotle's thought and that of all his commentators would be sufficient cause for admiration. But it does not stop there as he would appear to have complete command of all the ancient schools and thinkers whose ideas have come down to us. This ranges from the pre-Socratics, through Stoics and Epicureans, the fascinating neo-Platonists, and through the Church fathers to the Christian and Islamic thinkers of medieval times. To this we must add a thorough grasp of the intricacies of Buddhist thought, and its doctrinal maze on the relative illusory natures of self and even being. This for me was a welcome return to the world of ideas that so absorbed me in my twenties, that was characterised by my encouter with D.T.Suzuki's majestic Mahayana Buddhism. The `Modern' in Sorabji's title pertains specifically to his attempt to relate all the forgoing to the thought of Derek Parfit, who has constructed a rich but problematic analysis of Self as a loosely related bundle of perceptual streams. A key impressions I took from this book is that no philosophical idea is totally new. For instance there is the striking resemblance in form and consequence between Descartes brain in a vat, being tweaked by a demon, and the Flying Man of Averroes, suspended in darkness, with all perceptual context withdrawn. To all this we must add Sorabji's writing style, which is not only lively and engaging, but which never loses sight of the human essence of his subject, and the immediacy of its pertinence to himself and his reader.
I find myself blessed with a butterfly mind, with too many interests, and not enough discipline to devote myself to the acquisition of depth in any one topic. If I had a bundle of parallel lives then perhaps each could concentrate on a given subject perhaps just long enough to become reasonably competent in it. If that were so, then one life from my bundle would be devoted to building a solid picture of the schools and themes of ancient thought, and this book would be a marvellous stepping stone along that journey. As things stand though, I am sure I will not find the time to take the lines of enquiry opened up here any further until such time as the butterfly alights on topics pertaining to ancient thought once more. In the mean time I can say this has been a most lively and thought provoking journey.
I find myself blessed with a butterfly mind, with too many interests, and not enough discipline to devote myself to the acquisition of depth in any one topic. If I had a bundle of parallel lives then perhaps each could concentrate on a given subject perhaps just long enough to become reasonably competent in it. If that were so, then one life from my bundle would be devoted to building a solid picture of the schools and themes of ancient thought, and this book would be a marvellous stepping stone along that journey. As things stand though, I am sure I will not find the time to take the lines of enquiry opened up here any further until such time as the butterfly alights on topics pertaining to ancient thought once more. In the mean time I can say this has been a most lively and thought provoking journey.
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