Latoya Brown
HUP 101 2663
Dr. V Albrec
October 24, 2009
Self
I am Latoya Renaie Brown but close family and friends call me Shacky, when
I am asked who I am, the first thing I think of is my name I believe, I do this not because
my name is all that I am but because it gives recognition to the entity that I am. Without a
name associated to me, individuals would not know what to call me. It is not the name
that makes me who I am the name simply puts recognition to the immense amount of
things that I am made up of. I believe that concept of “Self” has a vast majority of
definition self cannot be contained in a category although it is one word it does not have
one meaning.
In a conversation between a Buddhist monk named Nagasena, and a king named
Menander, the king is asked what is a chariot his response " it is on account of all these
various components, the pole, axle, wheels, and so on , That the vehicle is called a chariot.
It's a generally understood term, a practical designation." I think of "Self" in a similar
way it's is the personality, features, habits, interest, experiences, and so on that makes me
who I am, and others who they are. I cannot be summed up because I am still being
discovered and will continue to be discovered until the day that I no longer exist. I can
however be recognized, if an individuals screams out my name verbatim, it is more than
likely that I will be the Only one that answers to that name. Rather than if someone
screamed out “You”, a copious amount of people would then respond in some form or
another, because the word ‘You” can mean anyone. The point I am trying to convey is
this although I do not know who I am, my name can carry me forward in my discovery of
who I am. In time my thoughts opinion and views even the way I look might change; but
I will continue to be called Latoya Renaie Brown. In the mist of the Visual and internal
change I will always respond to hearing my name being called.
I don't know who I am or what Self is to be honest there are only a small
amount of details that I do recognized to be true and that is, that I am a thinking being
who experiences different emotions and simulations based on the life I lead. I do however
like Kant, believe that the self is constructed, "though our knowledge begins with
experience it does not follow that It all arises out of experiences," Kant is saying that
although we do learn from experiences when we combine them we can make our own
judgments and thoughts; an example of this is when I was younger I use to love to play in
the dirt, I would make mud pies and literally throw dirt over my head like a dirt bath I
loved it, and I remember loving it. Oddly enough now at the age of 18 I am terrified of
dirt I associated dirt with bacteria’s, germs, and most importantly worms one of my
deepest fears. You would think that now I would have no fear of the dirt, after all I loved
it when I was younger. The change is this when I was younger I had no knowledge of
bacteria nor did I really know what worms were. After attending school and learning I
began to associate dirt and mud with bad things and made my own decision that I did not
like dirt based on what it contained.
I changed my opinion on the love of dirt, when you change your opinion most
people would say that you are not being true to yourself. My question to them is how do
you know what self is? just because I change my mind does that mean that I am no longer
who I was. If I like something one day and hate it the next am I still not me, I believe that
the great thing about being human is that you can change your mind. Just because we
change doesn't mean that we are not still the same.
There once lived a pre-Socratic philosopher named Heraclitus he is what we
would call a gothic individual because he has such a depressing out look on life,
historians would sometimes call him the weeping philosopher because of his depressing
state, why was he so depressed you might be wondering simple. Heraclitus believed that
“all things are in a constant state of flux" meaning things constantly changing and
nothing is ever one way more than once. He believed you could not step into the same
river twice or feel the same way twice and so on, Heraclitus got it wrong although life is
constant change we do get to hold on to things like stepping into a rivers and emotions
that we feel through impressions. When we experience something our minds allows us to
keep it forever. When I change my opinion or change something about me I am still
myself because my mind allows me to Hold on to the past experiences as impressions and
or Memories. I carry every single experience with me whether it be consciously or
unconsciously. This is the reason why I can still be myself while changing myself.
I had previously stated that although the word self is one word, but it has a
copious amount of definition. Why? Because self is ever changing, ever growing, ever
evolving. I would never try to define self it is too complex it is a four letter word with an
infinite amount of definitions. I credits this to my belief that self will never be defined
because self is never discovered until the end of each and every individuals journey in
reality or what seems to be reality.
R.A.I =Realization Always Intimidates