structure for 'Persons'    |     alphabetical list of themes    |     expand these ideas

16. Persons / E. Rejecting the Self / 3. Narrative Self

[Self mainly concerns our stories, history aqnd plans]

6 ideas
I can only be aware of myself as a person who changes by means of my personal history [Taylor,C]
I can only make decisions if I see myself as part of a story [MacIntyre]
We spin narratives about ourselves, and the audience posits a centre of gravity for them [Dennett]
We tell stories about ourselves, to protect, control and define who we are [Dennett]
The self is an abstraction which magnifies important aspects of autobiography [Flanagan]
We are not born with a self; we develop a self through living [Flanagan]