I think you’ve hit on an important point in asking what dissociation syndromes show about the way the mind processes “selfhood”, and you could expand upon that by considering a whole bunch of interesting altered states that seem to correspond to something in the temporal lobe (I can’t remember the exact research).
I didn’t completely follow the rest of the article. Is “consciousness” even the right term to use here? It has way too many meanings, and some of them aren’t what you’re talking about here—for example, I don’t see why there can’t be an entity that has subjective experience but no personal identity or self-knowledge. Consider calling the concept you’re looking for “personal identity” instead.
I also take issue with some of the language around continuity of personal identity being an illusion. I agree with you that it probably doesn’t correspond to anything in the universe, but it belongs in a category with morality of “Things we’re not forced to go along with by natural law, but which are built into our goal system and finding they don’t have any objective basis doesn’t force us to give them up”. I don’t think aliens would be philosophically rash enough to stop existing just because of a belief that personal identity is an illusion.
perceptions not corresponding to objective reality due to defects in sensory information processing used as the basis for that perception.
Optical illusions are examples of perceptions that don’t correspond to reality because of how our nervous system processes light signals. Errors in perception; either false positives or false negatives are illusions.
In some of the meditative traditions there is the goal of “losing the self”. I have never studied those traditions and don’t know much about them. I do know about dissociation from PTSD.
There can be entities that are not self-aware. I think that most animals that don’t recognize themselves in a mirror fit in the category of not recognizing themselves as entities. That was not the focus of what I wanted to talk about.
To be self-aware, an entity must have an entity detector that registers “self” upon exposure to certain stimuli.
Some animals do recognize other entities but don’t recognize themselves as “self”. They perceive another entity in a mirror, not themselves.
I think you’ve hit on an important point in asking what dissociation syndromes show about the way the mind processes “selfhood”, and you could expand upon that by considering a whole bunch of interesting altered states that seem to correspond to something in the temporal lobe (I can’t remember the exact research).
I didn’t completely follow the rest of the article. Is “consciousness” even the right term to use here? It has way too many meanings, and some of them aren’t what you’re talking about here—for example, I don’t see why there can’t be an entity that has subjective experience but no personal identity or self-knowledge. Consider calling the concept you’re looking for “personal identity” instead.
I also take issue with some of the language around continuity of personal identity being an illusion. I agree with you that it probably doesn’t correspond to anything in the universe, but it belongs in a category with morality of “Things we’re not forced to go along with by natural law, but which are built into our goal system and finding they don’t have any objective basis doesn’t force us to give them up”. I don’t think aliens would be philosophically rash enough to stop existing just because of a belief that personal identity is an illusion.
Also, paragraph breaks!
Yvain, what I mean by illusion is:
perceptions not corresponding to objective reality due to defects in sensory information processing used as the basis for that perception.
Optical illusions are examples of perceptions that don’t correspond to reality because of how our nervous system processes light signals. Errors in perception; either false positives or false negatives are illusions.
In some of the meditative traditions there is the goal of “losing the self”. I have never studied those traditions and don’t know much about them. I do know about dissociation from PTSD.
There can be entities that are not self-aware. I think that most animals that don’t recognize themselves in a mirror fit in the category of not recognizing themselves as entities. That was not the focus of what I wanted to talk about.
To be self-aware, an entity must have an entity detector that registers “self” upon exposure to certain stimuli.
Some animals do recognize other entities but don’t recognize themselves as “self”. They perceive another entity in a mirror, not themselves.