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16. Persons / E. Rejecting the Self / 4. Denial of the Self

[denial that there is any such thing as a 'Self']

24 ideas
Individuals don't exist, but are conventional names for sets of elements [Buddha]
The perfect man has no self [Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu)]
To see with true clarity, your self must be irrelevant [Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu)]
When the Buddha reached the highest level of insight, he could detect no self in the world [Ashvaghosha]
A continuous lifelong self must be justified by a single sustained impression, which we don't have [Hume]
When I introspect I can only observe my perceptions, and never a self which has them [Hume]
We pretend our perceptions are continuous, and imagine a self to fill the gaps [Hume]
Identity in the mind is a fiction, like that fiction that plants and animals stay the same [Hume]
We have no impression of the self, and we therefore have no idea of it [Hume]
Does an oyster with one perception have a self? Would lots of perceptions change that? [Hume]
It is as perverse to resent our individuality being replaced by others, as to resent the body renewing itself [Schopenhauer]
The 'I' is a conceptual synthesis, not the governor of our being [Nietzsche]
The 'I' is a fiction used to make the world of becoming 'knowable' [Nietzsche]
We contain many minds, which fight for the 'I' of the mind [Nietzsche]
Perhaps we are not single subjects, but a multiplicity of 'cells', interacting to create thought [Nietzsche]
In perception, the self is just a logical fiction demanded by grammar [Russell]
Everyone is other, and no one is himself [Heidegger]
The modern idea of the subjective soul is composite, and impossible [Wittgenstein]
Maybe it is the act of reflection that brings 'me' into existence [Sartre]
The Ego only appears to reflection, so it is cut off from the World [Sartre]
The brain is controlled by shifting coalitions, guided by good purposeful habits [Dennett]
The work done by the 'homunculus in the theatre' must be spread amongst non-conscious agencies [Dennett]
It doesn't matter whether I exist with half my components replaced (any more than an audio system) [Parfit]
For Buddhists a fixed self is a morally dangerous illusion [Flanagan]