a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  2682 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: You Are Not Your Mind

I see. That's your question.

My best guess, you is a unified complex of different mental and physical functions acting under the same overall goal: survive and procreate.

rt's terminology could use retooling, since you is a part of the mind, not the other way around. The reason I believe so is because the mind encompasses far more functions than you: it's responsible for unconscious control of physical movement (which, as is evident from development of robots, is an expensive aspect of our body's existence, processing-power-wise), our reflexes and other autonomous functions (like breathing, heartbeat or pupil dilation).

I recognize that rt's said that "mind" in the text is used in place of "internal dialogue". The reason I point that aspect out is because by naming the thing we provide ourselves the context to think within. Reducing mind to such a miniscule aspect of sentience-sapience chain is framing the issue too narrow.

With that out of the way...

I'm not so well-versed in human psychology as to be able to declare whether there can exist a separate point of view from Ego. Many observers have already noted the so-called "enlightened self" which is able to look past highly- or purely-selfish motivations, such as greed and lust. It also has this amazing ability to abstact itself and look at itself from the least personal and biased perspective. Which makes you both the actor and the observer, and the observer of the observer, and the observer of the observer of the...

Next, there's the conscious control of autonomous fuctions. Is it also you if one chooses to hold their breath, or is it you if one uses you as an instrument to affect other parts of the mind? If it is, in fact, you, then is it also you to hold your breath on command, without giving it a second thought? is it you to hold it on a whim, with a chaotic spawn of thought gone the same moment as it was conceived?

Is it you to agree that you're too weak to resist temptation? If so, is it also you to agree that you're strong enough for that?

I believe those questions to be important for discovering of the nature of you, but all the questions in the world won't bring us closer to understanding the issue if left without answer. How would you answer those questions - and which part of you would you employ to do so?