Traces of Self
If you’re like me, it doesn’t take much time looking at a cloud to see a duck or at the irregular grain of wood to see a face. In fact, one of the most basic perceptual principles is the gestalt effect: the grouping of elements together into a familiar, whole form rather than a collection of separate parts. This persistent process of constructing more from less goes beyond producing an understanding of visual images, it creates our understanding of the self as well.
Most take for granted the sovereignty of the self, assuming it to be a personal ‘head of state,’ the principal author of your thoughts and actions. The feeling that a single, unified, enduring self inhabits the brain- the “me” inside me - is compelling and appeals to intuition, as do all neural constructions once they are made.
Alternatively, however, Hume described the self as a ‘bundle of perceptions.’ In bundle theory, inherently fleeting experiences are woven together by memory to create the illusion of a continuous entity.
This entity becomes more organized and realized on our psychological landscape than its source. In this way, raw, discrete experience casts a shadow that we embellish as the experiencer. Here, the self is not actually an entity but, rather, an idea…a construction.
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