Why is your "I" is just an illusion

It would seem that our personality, our own "I" - this is what we can be sure. However, some philosophers believe that it is only an illusion.

Problem personality and his own "I" of concern to many philosophers and scientists. Her in several episodes of his TV program Closer to Truth touches and Robert Lawrence Kuhn (Robert Lawrence Kuhn).

Robert Lawrence Kuhn

Doctor of Biological Sciences, the creator, writer and host of a popular television program Closer to Truth, where famous philosophers ponder critical issues of humanity.

Recently Kuna mother turned 100 years old. Now this once vibrant bright woman lives in a nursing home. She can not walk or talk, but still recognizes family members: smiles when her grandchildren come to visit. She is annoyed at the inability to speak, frowning and clenching his hands. It expresses his displeasure with sighs and exclamations.

It still retains its identity? What about other patients, such as those suffering from Alzheimer's disease? In the later stages of the disease, they do not recognize relatives. They have kept their own "I"?

Kuhn was deeply touched by this situation. He began to ask questions, "What the hell is your own" I "?", "What does it mean to be a person?".

Let's think we are.

What is your own "I"

Nature's own "I" worried philosophers at all times. Refers both to the consciousness and to the structure of the brain, the concept combines two vague ideas: the continuity of philosophy (the way objects retain the integrity of the time) and psychological unity (how our brain makes us feel exceptional).

Take your old photograph, for example from school times. Then look in the mirror. These people - a single person. Yes? But why? After all, they look completely different. They have different memories. Since childhood, the body gave way almost all cells.

And yet you feel the same man, who once went to school, went to university, start a family, changed jobs at work. All this one person - you.

However, some philosophers believe that it is just an illusion.

Own "I" - the illusion

"There is no reason to believe that we as individuals have a continuity, - says psychologist Susan Blackmore (Susan Blackmore). - In our body, our brain is no place for an abstract "I". So the main question is why we think it is. "

According to Susan Blackmore, we ourselves create that feeling.

continuity illusion arises only when we begin to look for this continuity. This so-called "I" - is simply reconstructed. It has already occurred 30 days ago, and more than once will happen in the future. It turns out this is not one and the same person, it's just the events in the universe. "

Susan Blackmore

If we accept this theory, disappear a feeling of "me against the world", because there is no "I" there is only the events in the universe. Even death does not seem so terrible if from the outset there was no "I" that can die.

Another view from the philosopher Daniel Dennett (Daniel Dennett), teaches at Tufts University. He believes that the way we understand ourselves - this is an illusion created by our perception of the world. Dennett compares sensation own "I" with this notion, as the center of gravity of the object. It is also an abstraction, which we take to be something quite real.

As well we are doing and with the complex concept of human consciousness. We are trying to combine everything in a single point. So that the "I" - is the center of gravity of our story. The amount of memories, ideas, desires and plans, likes and dislikes - this is our psychological makeup.

Daniel Dennett

And what does it all ties? Opposite processes in the brain, which can not stand the inconsistencies. When such discrepancies arise, we either have to discard what seems illogical, or come up with a coherent theory that explains everything.

So, can we deceive ourselves?