Sorabji: Si Mesmo (Self)

SORABJI, Richard. SELF. Ancient and Modern Insights about Individuality, Life, and Death. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.

Part I: Existence of Self and philosophical development of the idea

1 The Self- is there such a thing?

2 The varieties of self and philosophical development of the idea

Part II: Personal identity over time

3 Same person in eternal recurrence, resurrection, and teletransportation

4 Stoic fusion and modern fission: Survival cannot depend on what happens to someone else

5 Memory: Locke’s return to Epicureans and Stoics

Part III: Platonism: impersonal selves, bundles, and differentiation

6 Is the true self individual in the Platonist tradition from Plato to Averroes?

7 Bundles and differentiation of individuals

Part IV: Identity and persona in ethics

8 Individual persona vs. universalizability

9 Plutarch: narrative and a whole life

10 Self as practical reason: Epictetus’ inviolable self and Aristotle’s deliberate choice

Part V.- Self-awareness

11 Impossibility of self-knowledge

12 Infallibility of self-knowledge: Cogito and Flying Man

13 Knowing self through others versus direct and invariable self-knowledge

14 Unity of self-awareness

Part VI.• Ownerless streams of consciousness rejected

15 Why I am not a stream of consciousness

16 The debate between ancient Buddhism and the Nyaya school

Part VII.- Mortality and loss of self

17 How might we survive death?

18 Could we survive through time going in a circle?

19 If we do not survive death, is it irrational to feel dismay?