Selves An Essay in Revisionary Metaphysics

Is there such a thing as 'the self'? If there is, what's it supposed to be like? It's hard to know where to begin. Galen Strawson thinks the best thing to do is ask another question: Why do we think that there's such a thing as the self? The answer is that we all-or almost all-have experience of having or being a self, a hidden inner mental presence (think of a child's first experience of lying). This doesn't get us very far, though, because havingexperience of a self doesn't mean that there actually is such a thing, any more than having experience of a pink elephant means there actually is such a thing. Nevertheless, if we look closely at what experience of a self is like, we may be able to work out what something would have to be like to count as a self;and we may then be able to work out whether there are any. Strawson concludes that selves do exist, but that the traditional picture of them is wrong.

Galen Strawson is Professor of Philosophy at Reading University, UK, and a Regular Visitor at CUNY Graduate Center, New York. Prior to that he was Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at CUNY Graduate Center, New York (2004-07); Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at Jesus College, Oxford (1987-2000). He has also held visiting positions at the Research School of Social Sciences at Australian National University (1993), New York University (1997), and Rutgers University (2000). Strawson received his degrees from the universities of Cambridge and Oxford and studied at the Ecole Normale Superieure (rue d'Ulm) and the Sorbonne (Paris I, 1977-8).