Self, Identity, who am I. This some would say is the fundamental question people are likely to ask themselves at some point. Personally I'm not certain that an individual we have a self. Don't get twisted, I'm not saying that left on their own people cease to exist, though that is the effect. Let me explain a bit of how I see this, our definitions of self depend on the people, and environment to an extent most "humans" would be uncomfortable contemplating. I've variously tried to explain this as the fish don't see the water. There is no place where any one thing starts, and any other thing stops. Drifting over to Jung's idea of collective unconscious, or the 100th monkey theory. These are all ideas pointing to fact that we can not have existence in absence of all we find around us. This extends even to our very concepts of identity.
I don't care what you believe, every structure I've found, all lead to a fundamental unity, be it science, magic, religion, psychology, physics. For a moment put yourself, physical body with all it's demands, and take them outside what we think of as space/time. The forces needed to even form basic types of matter will not exist, So let us assume that some form of what we think of as self awareness can exist outside what we think of as time/space. What would you be like as that being? If you have individualized awareness what would your focus be? Our very connection to matter tricks our mind into making judgments however sound, that may not be quite accurate. While it may be perfectly reasonable to not attempt to walk through walls, we have learned that their solid nature is only in relation to our solid nature. So how far can we take this idea that our sense of identity itself is not our own? I don't see an ending to chain, starting with the fundamental forces of what we call existence. Right on down to the person that told you could or couldn't do something, that hinder, or inspired.
In almost every culture there are stories of feral people, raised by wolves, or Tarzan raised by apes. These stories remind us how fragile our veneer of civility really is, while showing us our social nature isn't all that different from social groupings of what we think of as animals. Even these animals man has worked so hard to differentiate itself from are quite closely related to us in a cosmic sense. The forces that have shaped their development are the same as those that shape us. A minor shift can create seemingly major changes, but how large are these shifts really? Well they all take place within the realm of being human, so they can't be that major. Most happen between birth and death, and I must say in cosmic terms a human lifetime is a very small sample indeed. Even as you struggle to figure out who and what you are, everyone, and everything around you is molding and shaping you to be what it needs you to be. Even these identities only have meaning within the proper context. Would an accountant ever come into being before there is something to count, or a concept of tracking? Does a farmer exist before the idea of cultivation?
My concept of self is meaningless without the back drop of the history, and culture I have grown up in.
as always take this with a grain of salt.
Jack
aka
PanseyBard
I don't care what you believe, every structure I've found, all lead to a fundamental unity, be it science, magic, religion, psychology, physics. For a moment put yourself, physical body with all it's demands, and take them outside what we think of as space/time. The forces needed to even form basic types of matter will not exist, So let us assume that some form of what we think of as self awareness can exist outside what we think of as time/space. What would you be like as that being? If you have individualized awareness what would your focus be? Our very connection to matter tricks our mind into making judgments however sound, that may not be quite accurate. While it may be perfectly reasonable to not attempt to walk through walls, we have learned that their solid nature is only in relation to our solid nature. So how far can we take this idea that our sense of identity itself is not our own? I don't see an ending to chain, starting with the fundamental forces of what we call existence. Right on down to the person that told you could or couldn't do something, that hinder, or inspired.
In almost every culture there are stories of feral people, raised by wolves, or Tarzan raised by apes. These stories remind us how fragile our veneer of civility really is, while showing us our social nature isn't all that different from social groupings of what we think of as animals. Even these animals man has worked so hard to differentiate itself from are quite closely related to us in a cosmic sense. The forces that have shaped their development are the same as those that shape us. A minor shift can create seemingly major changes, but how large are these shifts really? Well they all take place within the realm of being human, so they can't be that major. Most happen between birth and death, and I must say in cosmic terms a human lifetime is a very small sample indeed. Even as you struggle to figure out who and what you are, everyone, and everything around you is molding and shaping you to be what it needs you to be. Even these identities only have meaning within the proper context. Would an accountant ever come into being before there is something to count, or a concept of tracking? Does a farmer exist before the idea of cultivation?
My concept of self is meaningless without the back drop of the history, and culture I have grown up in.
as always take this with a grain of salt.
Jack
aka
PanseyBard
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