Self
Ancient and Modern Insights about Individuality, Life, and Death
Richard Sorabji
Table of Contents
I. Existence of Self and Philosophical Development of the Idea
1:The Self: is there such a thing?
2:The varieties of self and philosophical development of the idea
II. Personal Identity Over Time
3:Same person in eternal recurrence, resurrection, and teletransportation
4:Stoic fusion and modern fission
5:Memory: Locke's return to Epicureans and Stoics
III. Platonism: Impersonal Selves, Bundles, and Differentiation
6:Is the true self Individual in the Platonist tradition from Plato to Averroes?
7:Bundles and differentiation of individuals
IV. Identity and Persona in Ethics
8:Individual persona vs. universalizability
9:Plutarch: narrative and a whole life
10:Self as practical reason: Epictetus' inviolable self and Aristotle's deliberate choice
V. Self-Awareness
11:Impossibility of self-knowledge
12:Infallibility of self-knowledge: cogito and Flying Man
13:Knowing self through others versus direct and invariable self-knowledge
14:Unity of self-awareness
VI. Ownerless Streams of Consciousness Rejected
15:Why I am not a stream of consciousness
16:The debate between ancient Buddhism and the Nyaya school
VII. Mortality and Loss of Self
17:How might we survive death?
18:Could we survive through time going in a circle?
19:If we do not survive death, is it irrational to feel dismay?
