ABSTRACT
The defense of the self, that is, of a continuously existing individual self through time, is one of the more intriguing features of the Mīmāṃsā system. Besides posing formidable problems for the Buddhist opponents of the self theory, it is of direct relevance to the ongoing Western debate about personal identity. Śabarasvāmin (fifth century) and Kumārilabhaṭṭa (seventh century), the two Mīmāṃsā thinkers I shall treat here, develop a position which contemporary Western theorists of personal identity tend to overlook. Yet it is, at least, not patently untenable, and it appears to have been held by some of the earlier philosophers who treated personal identity. In this article I shall expound the Mīmāṃsā position—or, more exactly, one particular argument of that position which I believe to be of special interest—and then relate it to the Western discussion.
