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Full Idea
Selves are not independently existing soul-pearls, but artefacts of the social processes that create us, and, like other such artefacts, subject to sudden shifts in status.
Gist of Idea
Selves are not soul-pearls, but artefacts of social processes
Source
Daniel C. Dennett (Consciousness Explained [1991], 13.2)
Book Ref
Dennett,Daniel C.: 'Consciousness Explained' [Penguin 1993], p.423
A Reaction
"Soul-pearls" is a nice phrase for the Cartesian view, but there can something between soul-pearls and social constructs. Personally I think the self is a development of the propriotreptic (body) awareness that even the smallest animals must possess.
| 5648 | For Hegel knowledge of self presupposes objects, and also a public and moral social world [Hegel, by Scruton] |
| 22788 | A human only become a somebody as a member of a social estate [Hegel] |
| 22792 | Individuals attain their right by discovering their self-consciousness in institutions [Hegel] |
| 22598 | The authentic self exists at the level of class, rather than the individual [Marx, by Dunt] |
| 20368 | There are no 'individual' persons; we are each the sum of humanity up to this moment [Nietzsche] |
| 8044 | Goffman sees the self as no more than a peg on which to hang roles we play [Goffman, by MacIntyre] |
| 7422 | A subject is a form which can change, in (say) political or sexual situations [Foucault] |
| 7386 | Selves are not soul-pearls, but artefacts of social processes [Dennett] |
| 18658 | The 'Kantian' self steps back from commitment to its social situation [Kymlicka] |
| 4939 | A sense of self begins either internally, or externally through language and society [Edelman/Tononi] |
| 10349 | To be considered 'an individual' is performed by a society [Kusch] |
| 5502 | Locke's intrinsic view of personal identity has been replaced by an externalist view [Martin/Barresi] |
| 20942 | Nazis think race predetermines the self [Bowie] |