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Full Idea
Our fundamental tactic of self-protection, self-control and self-definition is telling stories, and more particularly concocting and controlling the story we tell others - and ourselves - about who we are.
Gist of Idea
We tell stories about ourselves, to protect, control and define who we are
Source
Daniel C. Dennett (Consciousness Explained [1991], 13.1)
Book Ref
Dennett,Daniel C.: 'Consciousness Explained' [Penguin 1993], p.418
A Reaction
This seems to suggest that there is someone who wants to protect themselves, and who wants to tell the stories, and does tell the stories. No one can deny the existence of this autobiographical element in our own identity.
| 4006 | I can only be aware of myself as a person who changes by means of my personal history [Taylor,C] |
| 21050 | I can only make decisions if I see myself as part of a story [MacIntyre] |
| 7381 | We tell stories about ourselves, to protect, control and define who we are [Dennett] |
| 7382 | We spin narratives about ourselves, and the audience posits a centre of gravity for them [Dennett] |
| 5353 | The self is an abstraction which magnifies important aspects of autobiography [Flanagan] |
| 5354 | We are not born with a self; we develop a self through living [Flanagan] |