The AskPhilosophers logo.

Mind

What, if anything, can you boil one's self down to, outside any notion of soul or essence?
Accepted:
October 6, 2005

Comments

Jay L. Garfield
October 7, 2005 (changed October 7, 2005) Permalink

Many philosophers, especially those in the Buddhist tradition (Nagasena, Candrakirti, Santideva,or see Hume for a Western sympathiser), have argued that there is nothing that one can "boil oneself down to," that is, that the self has no existence independent of convention. Others have argued that there is some basic subjective entity, either substantial (Descartes) or transcendental (Kant, Schopenhauer) that undergirds our identity.

  • Log in to post comments
Source URL: https://askphilosophers.org/question/35
© 2005-2025 AskPhilosophers.org