Some Remarks on the Self

The present chapter is difficult; not (I hope) so much for the reader as for the writer. The trouble is that although the self has a peculiar unity, my somewhat scattered remarks on the self do not pretend to have any such unity or system (except perhaps in stressing the dependence of the self upon World 3). A discussion of the self, of persons and of personalities, of consciousness and of the mind, is only too liable to lead to questions like “What is the self?” or “What is consciousness?”. But as I have often pointed out, ¹ “what is” questions are never fruitful, although they have been much discussed by philosophers. They are connected with the idea of essences – “What is the self essentially?” – and so with the very influential philosophy which I have called “essentialism” and which I regard as mistaken. ² “What is” questions are liable to degenerate into verbalism – into a discussion of the meaning of words or concepts, or into a discussion of definitions. But, contrary to what is still widely believed, such discussions and definitions are useless.