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Single Idea 7382
[filed under theme 16. Persons / E. Rejecting the Self / 3. Narrative Self
]
Full Idea
The effect of our string of personal narratives is to encourage the audience to (try to) posit a unified agent whose words they are, about whom they are: in short, to posit a centre of narrative gravity.
Gist of Idea
We spin narratives about ourselves, and the audience posits a centre of gravity for them
Source
Daniel C. Dennett (Consciousness Explained [1991], 13.1)
Book Ref
Dennett,Daniel C.: 'Consciousness Explained' [Penguin 1993], p.418
A Reaction
What would be the evolutionary advantage of getting the audience to posit a non-existent self, instead of a complex brain? It might be simpler than that, since we say of a bird "it wants to do x". What is "it"? Some simple thing, like a will.
The
24 ideas
from 'Consciousness Explained'
7365
|
Dualism wallows in mystery, and to accept it is to give up
[Dennett]
|
7366
|
It is arbitrary to say which moment of brain processing is conscious
[Dennett]
|
7367
|
Perhaps the brain doesn't 'fill in' gaps in consciousness if no one is looking.
[Dennett]
|
7369
|
Brains are essentially anticipation machines
[Dennett]
|
7368
|
Originally there were no reasons, purposes or functions; since there were no interests, there were only causes
[Dennett]
|
7370
|
The brain is controlled by shifting coalitions, guided by good purposeful habits
[Dennett]
|
7371
|
All functionalism is 'homuncular', of one grain size or another
[Dennett]
|
7372
|
In peripheral vision we see objects without their details, so blindsight is not that special
[Dennett]
|
7373
|
Blindsight subjects glean very paltry information
[Dennett]
|
7374
|
Light wavelengths entering the eye are only indirectly related to object colours
[Dennett]
|
7376
|
We can't assume that dispositions will remain normal when qualia have been inverted
[Dennett]
|
7379
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If an epiphenomenon has no physical effects, it has to be undetectable
[Dennett]
|
7380
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Visual experience is composed of neural activity, which we find pleasing
[Dennett]
|
7383
|
The psychological self is an abstraction, not a thing in the brain
[Dennett]
|
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]
|
7386
|
Selves are not soul-pearls, but artefacts of social processes
[Dennett]
|
7385
|
People accept blurred boundaries in many things, but insist self is All or Nothing
[Dennett]
|
7384
|
Words are fixed by being attached to similarity clusters, without mention of 'essences'
[Dennett]
|
7387
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"Qualia" can be replaced by complex dispositional brain states
[Dennett]
|
7393
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We can't draw a clear line between conscious and unconscious
[Dennett]
|
7391
|
We can know a lot of what it is like to be a bat, and nothing important is unknown
[Dennett]
|
7394
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Conscious events can only be explained in terms of unconscious events
[Dennett]
|
14308
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We can bring dispositions into existence, as in creating an identifier
[Dennett, by Mumford]
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