ABSTRACT
Ownership of a body by a self is not possible without a distinction between self and body, for simply being a (human) body does not suffice for being a person or a self. But neither is a person or a self an independent entity that merely uses the body. One must understand the self as constituted by certain interrelations between the psychological states of a body, inter-relations that simultaneously create a self and create a relationship of ownership between the body and the self. This chapter deals with much recent work on the nature of personal identity or selfhood, including work in such fields as the philosophy of mind, literary theory, and feminist theory. The self, or the ego, is not a separate entity with independent desires. It is, rather, a certain way of coordinating unreflective beliefs and desires, a way that depends on the emergence of certain rational capacities, which themselves emerge with the capacity for reflection.
