Philosophers on the term "Self"
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The term "self" is difficult to define but usually involves the inner life of the individual, the psychological dimension of human existence as opposed to the outward, physical form. The self is conceived as a creature of consciousness, a mind capable of thought and able to engage in deliberate action. A self is capable of self-consciousness, which means it recognizes its own ability to think and to contain first-person thoughts. The question is, however, is there a Self or not, and if there is, what is its nature? This has been argued in philosophy since the time of the Greeks and has been answered differently by philosophers, religious leaders, and psychologists at different times in history. Some of those answers have bene embodied in the works of Plato, the Buddha, Descartes, and William James, whose views will help clarify the issue. In the Phaedo, Plato offers a number of arguments concerning immortality and the survival of the soul, and in so doing he suggests a definition of the Self that can be equated with the soul. If there is immortality, something must survive death, and that something is the soul. The immortality discussed by Socrates is specifically the survival of the soul. The existence of the soul itself is presumed in this dialogue. Phaedo reports that Socrates did not object to dying because he believed in the soul and that the soul would pass over to be with the gods and with men who had already made this journey. The gods were seen as wise a
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Buddha, the soul also survives the body, but this does not mean that he would agree with Plato regarding the survival or even the existence of the self. For the Buddha, the self is an illusion, a temporary state that does not survive and that does not define the underlying soul. The Buddhist conception was developed by the Buddha in the sixth and seventh centuries A.D. and adapted the Indian conception of transmigration in a different way because the Buddha was not in agreement with the way this idea was expressed by Hindu religious leaders of his time. They saw the soul as a spiritual substance, and Buddhism denied this. Buddha instead provided the idea of karma combined with his particular conception of transmigration. The Hindu view of the soul was known as Atman, and Buddha offered the idea of the no-soul, or Anatta. Buddhism does have a conception of salvation, but it does not involve the soul as did the Hindu conception of salvation. Salvation in Buddhism is rather an element in a chain of causation connecting each life to those that went before and those that will follow. the individual life of the moment is the product of earlier lives and will prepare for future lives. Yet, this still does not mean that there is
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2263
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)
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