Open Discussion: What is a self?

This meeting will be a live discussion of the title topic. This sort of discussion can't be settled in any particular way, but remains relevant for beginners and initiates to philosophy.

(Note: after meetings, attendees are all welcome to join for dinner. We typically go to one of a few local restaurants in walking distance of the meetup location.)

Here are some questions and comments that may help guide the conversation (feel free to bring questions of your own, as well):

We've asked about knowing ourselves, but what is a self, anyway? Is it something tangible, physical, mental, or spiritual? What do these options even signify? Are we a thing, or things, or does it somehow ride above things?

Does a self even exist, or are we suffering from a horrible delusion? Do each of us have an independent self, or is there a collective self?

Is the self stable or momentary? Does it change all the time or remain the same? What could even allow a self to be stable over time, and what would this show us about the nature of a self?

Here are a bunch of quotes from Descartes Second Meditation:

"But I do not yet understand sufficiently what I am—I, who now necessarily exist. And so from this point on, I must be careful lest I unwittingly mistake something else for myself, and thus err in that very item of knowledge that I claim to be the most certain and evident of all. Thus, I will meditate once more on what I once believed myself to be, prior to embarking upon these thoughts."

"What then did I formerly think I was?"

"But now what am I, when I suppose that there is some supremely powerful and, if I may be permitted to say so, malicious deceiver who deliberately tries to fool me in any way he can?"

"What else am I?"

"But what then am I? A thing that thinks. What is that? A thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wills, refuses, and that also imagines and senses."

"From these considerations I am beginning to know a little better what I
am."