Self
Ancient Greeks, Romans and the people in the Middle Ages would never have used the term "self" as a descriptive expression. They would have used the term "soul" or "intelligence" instead. "The self" reflects what is spiritually and morally important about human beings. Central to Western culture and also in tension with the modern Western life are self-control and self-exploration. When Plato (the fourth century B.C.E.)spoke of self-mastery, he meant one's reason was in control of one's desires, and that reason helps one grasp the order of the universe. When one's desires were in control, one would not be master of oneself.
Self-Examination
Saint Augustine (the fourth century C.E.)viewed the self differently: when one turns inward and examines oneself, one discovers the power of God.
Self-Control
Descartes's idea of self-control concentrates on oneself or one's bodily existence as an instrument, a mechanism one can use.
Question:
Would you say that this self as a controller has the same nature as the body and mind that are being controlled? Or is its nature distinct from those of body and mind? (the Dalai Lama)
Answer:
For Descartes, it was the same thing, but the self is something distinct. It does not have any particular content itself. It was the control power of the body content and the thought content(Charles Taylor, pp. 11-14).
Self-Exploration
In the last two hundred years self-exploration in the West grew out of the Christian spirituality inspired by St. Augustine with his self-examination. The assumption is that each human being has their own particular way of being human. Each of us needs to draw that nature out of ourselves by self-exploration, and to find a way for self-expression in visual art, poetry, or music. In modern Western culture art has an almost religious significance.
The two practices of self-control and self-exploration are fundamental and crucially important in Western culture, but they are also in conflict today between those who have a technological orientation to the world and themselves and those who are for self-control, ecological health, and openness to oneself.
In the relationships to the cosmos, to God, and to one's own self, the concept of freedom is central in the moral and political life in the West (Charles Taylor, pp. 15-16).
Question:
Is there an underlying assumption that self-control necessarily implies a self-existence or an autonomous self, whereas self-exploration implies that's doubtful? (the Dalai Lama)
Answer:
Not necessarily. Self-exploration presupposes a self, but opens the possibility that the exploration can go beyond that. Descrates's self-control starts with the certainty that I, myself, exist. Western scientific understanding is built on that certainty (Charles Taylor, p. 16).
Question:
In the modern West, when one thinks "I" or "I am," does this necessarily imply that the "I" so conceived must be posited as being independent or autonomous? (the Dalai Lama)
Answer:
If you ask people, they say no. But in the way they actually live it, the answer is yes, very powerfully, and much more so than our ancestors who thought of themselves more as part of a larger cosmos. (Charles Taylor, author of Sources of the Self)
Question:
In the evolution of the self was there ever a non-self posited, the idea that in fact human beings didn't have a separate self-identity? (Joan Halifax)
Answer:
There are such phases in Western development. For instance, the medieval Aristotelians thought that the really important part of us, the active intellect, was absolutely a universal thing and not particularized. The famous Islamic philosopher Ibn Rushd Averroes thought that also, but he had great problems with mainstream Islam. It was because of Ibn Rushd that Aristotelianism had problems entering Christendom; it's only when Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas managed to reintroduce the idea of a personal intellect that it was allowed in. (Charles Taylor)
Source:
Sleeping, Dreaming, and Dying: An Explanation of Consciousness with the Dalai Lama. Edited and narrated by Francisco J. Valera. (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1997).
