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## Locke (contd.) * This consciousness gives the continuity/stability that establishes the self * However, the self is not something we are born with; rather it is developed through experience * We are born as blank slates (tabula rasa) with no consciousness, and therefore with no self yet....

## Locke (contd.) * This consciousness gives the continuity/stability that establishes the self * However, the self is not something we are born with; rather it is developed through experience * We are born as blank slates (tabula rasa) with no consciousness, and therefore with no self yet. * As we gain experience, we discover the self through our consciousness; this consciousness links our past selves with our present (and future) selves, giving us continuity and stability of self * While other philosophers thought of the self as the immortal soul and made of spiritual essence, Locke believed that the self can be anything that has consciousness * So, if your finger was cut off but it still regains a consciousness, then your mutilated finger is still you! ## David Hume * There is no self * Humans perceive two things: impressions, which are our basic sensations of experience such as happiness, pain, cold, grief; and ideas, which are copies of impressions stored in the mind * In order for the 'self' to exist as a 'constant and invariable' idea, our impressions of the self must also be constant and invariable. However, our impressions of the self are fleeting and variable (e.g., no two experiences of grief are the same). Therefore, it is logical to assume that there is no such as thing as the idea of an unchanging self. * When we die, we cease to exist. As such, there is no soul containing the self that will continue to linger on Earth. Thus, there is no self. * The self is an idea, the amalgamation of different impressions over time which we collectively designate as 'the self'. ## Immanuel Kant * The self is the thread which binds our experiences of 'self' together in a 'unity of consciousness' * Criticized Hume's nihilistic view of the non-existence of the self, saying that it is dangerous to think of the mind as merely a receptacle of fleeting impressions and ideas * We are able to organize what Hume called 'fleeting and variable' impressions and ideas, and at the center of these organized perceptions is the conscious self * Like Locke, he believed in the connected unity of consciousness; but he did not agree that we are blank slates; rather we have existing knowledge (i.e., a priori knowledge) which we use to make sense and organize our perceptions * Transcendental self - the organizing principle of self; the a priori knowledge * Empirical self - the conscious self or ego; posteriori knowledge * Without the self, we will be unable to make sense of our perceptions and sensations * This 'unity of consciousness' gives the self its consistency over time ## Gilbert Ryle * The self is best understood as the pattern of behavior, the tendency or disposition for a person to behave in a certain way * Subscribed to the main tenets of behaviorism

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