Sunday Bonus: Is the Self a Story?

“Each of us constructs and lives a ‘narrative’...this narrative IS us, our identities” ~Oliver Sacks

“We are all virtuoso novelists…We try to make all of our material cohere into a single good story. And that story is our autobiography. The chief fictional character...is one’s self” ~Daniel Dennett

At this meetup, we will consider the idea (popular in both philosophy and psychology for a few decades now) that the self is a story spun by our brains, a narrative that unifies and gives meaning to the various chapters of our lives. To switch the metaphor slightly: the self is the protagonist, author, narrator, and critic of a life story. The philosophers Marya Schechtman and Daniel Dennett are among those who advocate this narrative approach to personal identity. Galen Strawson, on the other hand, argues that such an approach is not only false, but pernicious.

Here are a few sources that can help us understand and evaluate this narrative view of the self. You don’t have to read or watch all of them, but please try to read at least one of the written texts before our meetup on December 1st:

*Marya Schechtman’s “The Narrative Self” (2011), 15 pages: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjX7bLjysbeAhVLjlQKHSpuCz8QFjAEegQIBRAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffaculty.ycp.edu%2F~dweiss%2FFYS100%2FNarrative%2520View%2520of%2520the%2520Self.pdf&usg=AOvVaw0h-wVDWFTfRjaQ93LG5D6F. Schechtman provides a good overview of the variety of narrative approaches to personal identity, including her own “Narrative Self-Constitution View.” She distinguishes, for example, between views in which selves are inherently narrative in form, and views in which narrative is simply a useful concept for understanding some aspects of human selves.

*Daniel Dennett’s “The Self as a Center of Narrative Gravity” (1986), 18 pages: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiCp67my8beAhXBhFQKHWgxCG4QFjAAegQIBBAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fase.tufts.edu%2Fcogstud%2Fdennett%2Fpapers%2Fselfctr.pdf&usg=AOvVaw30Pcs3dquugpsJCH3DaeEX. Dennett draws an analogy between the center of gravity of an object and the center of “narrative gravity” of a human being. The self, like a center of gravity, is a “theorist’s fiction,” a useful abstraction. Dennett goes on to point out a number of other interesting parallels between the self and a fictional character like Ishmael or Sherlock Holmes.

*Galen Strawson’s “Against Narrativity” (2004), 23 pages: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjS2cqDzMbeAhVry1QKHTy1AXoQFjAAegQIABAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Flchc.ucsd.edu%2Fmca%2FPaper%2Fagainst_narrativity.pdf&usg=AOvVaw2LKoH1CQVRFJIyEpIiGlNmf. Strawson distinguishes between the descriptive narrativity claim that “human beings typically see or live or experience their lives as a narrative or story of some sort” and the ethical narrativity claim that “experiencing or conceiving one’s life as a narrative is a good thing.” He then argues against both of these claims.

*Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on “Contemporary Accounts of Personal Identity”: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/identity-ethics/#ConAcc. This article provides brief, but at times technical, summaries of the major approaches to personal identity in contemporary philosophy, including the psychological, biological, narrative, and anthropological views.

*A short video (9 min.) on narrative identity by Elisabeth Camp, a professor of philosophy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcIqoN9oRgo&vl=en

*A short interview (13 min.) with Daniel Dennett about his view of the self as a center of narrative gravity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE6CNETNJvk&t=677s

*A short interview (9 min.) with Galen Strawson on the nature of selves, including his distinction between “episodic” and “diachronic” forms of self-experience: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh0qASdSsNY

*A showdown (41 min.) between philosophical “nemeses” Marya Schechtman and Galen Strawson: https://iai.tv/video/life-story

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION:

1. According to the views discussed by Schechtman, in which ways does the self, or life, have the form of a narrative? How are we the protagonists, authors, narrators, and critics of our own life stories?

2. Is calling life a narrative getting things backwards? While narratives can be lifelike, is it meaningful to say that lives are narrative-like?

3. What are the discontinuities between life and literature? Are there enough to undermine a narrative approach to personal identity?

4. Do we need an overarching theme or purpose in life? Or can we move happily and justifiably from one mini-purpose to another?

5. How is the self (like) a fictional character, according to Dennett? How can both be indeterminate?

6. Is it right to regard the self as a fiction? Isn't there something “self”-contradictory about that?

7. Where do you fall on Strawson's “episodic/diachronic” spectrum of self-experience? Is one way of experiencing the self superior to the other?

8. Why is a narrative view of the self pernicious, according to Strawson? How might it lead to an inauthentic life?

9. What are the major contenders to the narrative view of personal identity in contemporary philosophy? Do any of them strike you as more compelling? Why?

Hope to see you on Dec. 1st!

--The Useful Fiction Called “Eric”?