The Self is Really a Story
Paul Broks, author of Into the Silent Land: Travels in Neuropsychology, from “Who am I?” Radiolab (January 15, 2006):
Paul Broks, author of Into the Silent Land: Travels in Neuropsychology, from “Who am I?” Radiolab (January 15, 2006):
"I would suggest that the notion that there is this immaterial soul—which some people might believe departs the body at death and some people might believe takes on another body in a future life—that’s an illusion, I think.
Other people take a different line on this. Other people do believe there is self-stuff or soul-stuff somewhere. But the question is, Where is it?
How would you when you found it? What would you be looking for? I have no idea what you’d expect to find…
I have the same body, more or less, from day-to-day. I look in the mirror and it’s me. But essentially what I tell you, if you were to ask me about myself, I tell you a story…
The extended self, which is what we normally think of when we think about ourselves, is really a story. It's the story of what's happened to a body over time."
