XPost: alt.philosophy, alt.atheism, talk.atheism   
   From: brianf88@bigpond.net.au   
      
   "Sean"  wrote in message   
   news:m9ydnbiL0r9mVpjZRVn-jA@inspired.net.au...   
   >   
   > "Brian Fletcher"  wrote in message   
   > news:zP4Nf.18291$yK1.16749@news-server.bigpond.net.au...   
   >>   
   >> "Joseph H"  wrote in message   
   >> news:1141155912.450786.117430@z34g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...   
   >>> What is this thing called self?   
   >>>   
   >>> Is it.......   
   >>>   
   >>> A collection of personality-traits?   
   >>> or..   
   >>> Some special gift or skill?   
   >>> or..   
   >>> Some unique personality?   
   >>> or..   
   >>> A particular compendium of the beliefs and attitudes available locally?   
   >>> or..   
   >>> An I one pampers and indulges as much as possible?   
   >>> or..   
   >>> Some metaphysical and/or legal entity?   
   >>> or..   
   >>> All of the above - i.e. a vague identity to be called upon as and how   
   >>> thge occasion demands?   
   >>>   
   >>> And if it so happens that a person has no unique gifts, or none that he   
   >>> knows, and is unable to submit to the conventions of the moment and has   
   >>> no interest in pampering himself...does that mean that this person has   
   >>> no self?   
   >>>   
   >>> Or if a person has some physiological or psychological condition -   
   >>> autism, say - that prevents him joining in the great swig of the moment   
   >>> does that mean this person too is devoid of self?   
   >>>   
   >>> And might we not say that human history is an ongoing theatre of self,   
   >>> a never-ending frieze of error and insistence and assertion and favour?   
   >>> And where stands the no-man, the man with no self, in this frieze? Does   
   >>> he have any useful role to play? Might he - because of his inability to   
   >>> join in the jolly lie -  be driven to find an underlying truth? Might   
   >>> not the vast spectaculars of our capacity to sustain self - the ability   
   >>> to create, to believe, to submit to form, to beauty - push us along a   
   >>> path of error and illusion? And might the no-man, in this scenario,   
   >>> have something to offer....?   
   >>>   
   >>> Ah, shure, I'm only hoping.....   
   >>>   
   >>> Joseph H   
   >>>   
   >>> www.humanisation.org   
   >>>   
   >>   
   >> From where did the hope spring?   
   >>   
   >> BOfL   
   >>   
   >   
   > Eternal ... of course! :)   
   >   
   >   
   10/10 *****   
      
   :-)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)