Life Without the Self

A trending idea is that pursuing one’s life purpose is a process of discovering “oneself” because the self marks a person’s nature and identity. This idea states that although it might hide deeply inside of one’s mind, the self is the core and foundation of a person as a living being; it represents each person’s uniqueness by containing one’s essence and showing what one is really like. However, this idea is wrong because “the self” is only an artificial and unreal concept. People’s belief in the existence of the self can be attributed to their oversimplification of personal identity and self model to the sole concept of “self.” This paper will explain how the society gives rise to one’s personal identity and self model, and how personal identity and self model correspond to one another.

The self, believed by many to be the innermost core of a person, is often described as inherent, coming into being as soon as one’s body forms. It is not inherited, acquired or induced, totally out of the reach of human efforts, so that everyone should be born with a formed self. However, as far as I am concerned, one’s essence is far from inborn; it is totally influenced or given by the environment that one lives in. Thus, one could not have an inborn self. Instead, one’s essence should be better understood as the external personal identity and the internal self model combined.

Society determines one’s personal identity, which is how one is recognized by others or society. It is twofold, consisting of individual identity and social identity. Individual identity is personal. It includes one’s body, name, characteristics and traits. Social identity is relational. It marks social status and labels people in human relationships. It is just with the help of both individual identity and social identity that social communication and human networks can work. The two parts of personal identity are both determined by the environment. For example, one’s name and body are given by one’s parents; one’s characteristics and traits are affected by surrounding people; and one’s social status depends on how others value one’s skills.

Social life also gives rise to the creation of one’s self model, which is how one is recognized by one’s brain. One gains experiences and perceives emotions from a first-person perspective which assures the uniqueness and exclusivity of those experiences and emotions. One also communicates with others through exchanging ideas, which are products of one’s experience through logic and reasoning. These experiences, emotions and ideas all contribute to this person’s knowledge building. As David Hume indicates that “the mind is a kind of theatre where several perceptions successively make their appearance,” knowledge that one accumulates through social communication and personal experience is presented as perceptions in the brain (“Of Personal Identity”