ABSTRACT
A false mind? Is such a thing possible? We are accustomed, in everyday conversation, to refer to people’s ‘false’ smiles, their ‘false’ laughs, any number of ‘false’ attitudes they choose to present to the world. We call such people ‘insincere’, meaning that their outward appearance, their image, does not accurately reflect their internal, ‘real’ or ‘true’ feelings. But what if the interior self, the mind, were itself artificial? What if the
core of a person’s identity, his ‘personality’, was nothing more than a conglomeration of images and attitudes assimilated from the external environment? In that case, it would make no sense to criticize someone because his image failed to correspond to his ‘true’ personality. The very concept of an independent personality which could be separated from someone’s material actions would be brought into serious question. What would be the consequences for the human condition of such a development?
