Self : ancient and modern insights about individuality, life, and death

413 Pages·2006·1.118 MB·English

by  Sorabji, Richard

Self
Mary Cassatt, The First Mirror,captures the shared attention with mother through which infants
first distinguish themselves from other people; the mirror adds further self-reference.
Self
Ancient and Modern Insights
about Individuality, Life, and Death
r ichard sorabji
the university of chicago press
richard sorabjiis emeritus professor of ancient philosophy at King’s College,
London, and fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. Besides coediting The Ethics of
War: Shared Problems in Different Traditions, and editing seventy volumes so far
of The Ancient Commentators on Aristotle, he is the author of Matter, Space and
Motion;Animal Minds and Human Morals;Emotion and Peace of Mind;Aristotle on
Memory;Necessity, Cause and Blame; and Time, Creation and the Continuum, the
last three of which are also published by the University of Chicago Press.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
Oxford University Press, Oxford ox2 6dp
© 2006 by Richard Sorabji
All rights reserved. Published 2006
Printed in the United States of America
15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 1 2 3 4 5
isbn-13: 978-0-226-76825-0 (cloth)
isbn-10: 0-226-76825-2 (cloth)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sorabji, Richard.
Self : ancient and modern insights about individuality, life, and death / Richard
Sorabji.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn0-226-76825-2 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Self (Philosophy) I. Title.
bd438.5.s67 2006
126—dc22
2005038002
(cid:2)(cid:2)The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48–1992.
To Orde Levinson

contents
List of abbreviations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
Part I: Existence of Self and philosophical development of the idea
1 The Self: is there such a thing? 17
2 The varieties of self and philosophical development
of the idea 32
Part II: Personal identity over time
3 Same person in eternal recurrence, resurrection,
and teletransportation 57
4 Stoic fusion and modern fission: Survival cannot
depend on what happens to someone else 83
5 Memory: Locke’s return to Epicureans and Stoics 94
Part III: Platonism: impersonal selves, bundles, and differentiation
6 Is the true self individual in the Platonist tradition
from Plato to Averroës? 115
7 Bundles and differentiation of individuals 137
Part IV: Identity and persona in ethics
8 Individual persona vs. universalizability 157
9 Plutarch: narrative and a whole life 172
10 Self as practical reason: Epictetus’ inviolable self
and Aristotle’s deliberate choice 181
Part V: Self-awareness
11 Impossibility of self-knowledge 201
12 Infallibility of self-knowledge: Cogito and Flying Man 212
13 Knowing self through others versus direct and
invariable self-knowledge 230
14 Unity of self-awareness 245
Part VI: Ownerless streams of consciousness rejected
15 Why I am not a stream of consciousness 265
16 The debate between ancient Buddhism and the
Nyaya school 278
Part VII: Mortality and loss of self
17 How might we survive death? 301
18 Could we survive through time going in a circle? 316
19 If we do not survive death, is it irrational
to feel dismay? 330
Table of thinkers 343
Select bibliography of secondary literature 345
General index 365
Index locorum 387
abbreviations
Alc. 1: First Alcibiades
in Alc. 1: Commentary on Plato’s First Alcibiades
An. Post.:Analytica Posteriora((cid:3)Posterior Analytics)
in An. Post.: Commentary on Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics
An. Pr.:Analytica Priora((cid:3)Prior Analytics)
in An. Pr.: Commentary on Aristotle’s Prior Analytics
CAG: Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca
Cat.: Categories
in Cat.: Commentary on Aristotle’s Categories
CCL: Corpus Christianorum Series Latina
CLCAG: Corpus Latinum Commentariorum in Aristotelem Graecorum
CSEL: Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum
DA: De Anima((cid:3)On the Soul)
in DA: in De Anima((cid:3)Commentary on Aristotle On the Soul)
DK: Diels-Kranz
Dox. Gr.: Doxographici Graeci,ed. H. Diels
EE: Eudemian Ethics
EN: Nicomachean Ethics
GC: On Generation and Corruption
in GC: Commentary on Aristotle On Generation and Corruption
GCS: Die griechischen christlichen Schriftstellen
Int.: De Interpretatione((cid:3)On Interpretation)
in Int.: Commentary on Aristotle De Interpretatione
Isag.: Isagôgê((cid:3)Introduction)
in Isag.: Commentary on Porphyry’s Isagôgê