The Illusion of Self - Hume & Buddhism

source: Philosophical Overdose     2017年1月16日
Descartes famously claimed that the one thing which is absolutely certain and cannot be doubted is the existence of himself as a conscious thinking subject. But the existence of the self has been challenged, both in the east and west. David Hume maintained that there's only a bundle of memories, perceptions, and thoughts, but no underlying subject or self which "has" them, to which they belong and are held together. So too, Buddhists also reject the existence of a self which persists through time, as a consequence of a rejection of permanence generally. This all sounds quite counterintuitive, especially to the western ear. What are the implications? What does this mean for ethics and our conception of mind?
This is an episode of ABC National's Philosopher's Zone. Joe Gelonesi discusses the no self view in Buddhism with Professor Alison Gopnik and Monima Chadha. For more information, go to: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/p...