SELF EVIDENT

“Contrary to recent opinion, there is such a thing as a self, and it is empirically amenable to scientific investigation”

By: Şerife Tekin

Published: Aeon, https://aeon.co/essays/the-self-does-exist-and-is-amenable-to-scientific-investigation

Level of Difficulty: ****

LISTEN AND HIGHLIGHT

Click the icon to the left of the screen to listen to the text, read along and make notes

QUESTIONS

1.       The main argument in favor of the antirealist standpoint is the fact that…..According to anti realists the self is a construct of…..

2.       Watch: David Hume – Is there a self? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2880HINZv2s His failure to….lead David Hume to conclude that we have no experience of a simple, individual impression that we can call the self.

3.       In the paragraph discussing Dennett’s views, it is implied that the self could have been open to scientific research had it been…………

4.       According to Joplin, there is a positive correlation between ……………… on the one hand and ……………………….

5.       Where in the paragraph beginning “The answer…” would you place the following sentence: The antirealists have got it all wrong; there is a simple explanation which refutes all their arguments.

6.       Which sentence in the text best describes what the multitudinous self is?

7.       The concept of the multitudinous self builds on Neisser’s Five Kinds of Self Knowledge in the sense that it envisions the self…

8.       Read the example of the 12-year old to the end. What general conclusion can we draw from this example? This example proves that ….. (There are two answers, find both)

9.       Read the paragraph beginning “Recall…” to the end and the paragraph that follows. Which sentence in this section best expresses the dichotomy between the antirealist view of the self and the multitudinous view of the self?

10.   According to philosophers like William James, Joplin, Flanagan and the like, the reality of the self matters because otherwise, ………………………..

11.   It important to view the self as a complex whole whose parts interact with each other because otherwise we would not be able to…

12.   The major advantage of in depth understanding of the self is the potential to …

WRITING TASK

Write an essay in which you compare and contrast the anti realist versus the multitudinous self.

SELF EVIDENT; KEY AND TEACHERS’ NOTES

This is a serious philosophy text and will not appeal to everyone so be careful if you decide to take it in to class. It could go down like a led bullet or fly depending on the class. The task is better suited to individual work where those who are interested in the subject can enjoy it on their own.

1.       If there is no one to perceive it there would be no self / Cultural, social and linguistic conventions

2.       Catch himself at any time without a perception

3.       Impermeable and inflexible

4.       Culture and language / experiences of the self

5.       At the end of the paragraph to provide transition to the following paragraph

6.       The self is a dynamic, complex relational and multi-aspectual mechanism of capacities, processes, states and traits that support a degree of agency

7.       As a complex mechanism with many dimensions that interact and work together to maintain a more or less stable agency over time

8.       We can acquire information about the selfhood of 12 year olds, tracking information about them in all five dimensions by relying on both first person and third person perspectives / OR The self of the preteen is empirically tractable

9.       While the anti realists are right to note the variability in self concepts and private experiences of the self, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t regularities within the variability

10.    The self would not be open to the enrichment of moral possibilities

11.    Fathom the complexity of mental disorders

Improve the lives of those whose self experiences are not conducive