RETURN TEST #1 Went over questions, etc from test. ANNOUNCMENTS: *COME ONE, COME ALL!!!STUDY GROUP WILL MEET AT 2 PM ON THURSDAY 2/14 IN THE CAFETERIA NEAR THE RENAISSANCE ROOM. **NEXT MID-TERM WILL BE FEB. 26th. Reading text by the Buddha...Siddhartha Guatama. THE SELF: The virtue of humility. Buddha put the "braggart" in his place after the man tried to out-reason him. But what did this prove? Buddha asks, is there a "substantial" self or not? Of course there is always "personality" stuff happening, but what is the "real" self(soul)? Buddha uses the term: atman for, self, or soul and says we experience an atman, which is no-self, or no-soul. If we believe in re-incarnation, what is it that moves from body to body? Borrowdale asks, "Are shadows "real"? and answers, "Well, I see an object (a table) and there is a light source, so, I see a shadow there, under the table...but can it exist on its own?" Perhaps we are like this shadow... Buddha says there are 5 things which make up the "self": 1. Form (physical body) 2. Feeling (emotions) 3. Perceptions (the senses) 4. Formations(acts of will, decisions or intentions) 5. Consciousness "self" is a convenient word for these 5 concurrent (happening at the same time) processes. Buddha says that there is no "self", only a process...he says that when you die, you cause another to be born, not "you" really, but that another is born with similar senses and feelings as you. What is the "I-ness" that is in the sentence "I am angry"? there is no "stuff" that is angry, only a process... Looking at Buddhism is like looking at early fundamentalism. IF you look at a process as if it were a "thing", as in the wind storm last Thursday, like apples on my apple tree...Buddha would say you're confused. A functionalist would say that the mind is a structure with computational power. Buddha asks, "What is left then? after the body dies?" Certainly you are not the same person body to body. Why, you're not the same person from one hour to the next... we are processes that are in constant change...we are never the same. Locke brings up the mighty oak tree...taking in oxygen(O2)and giving out carbon dioxide(CO2)in constant movement, yet the same organism. Buddha says there is no personal identity, nothing that makes you the same person over time, because there's nothing which makes you a person.period.! Locke says: memory and psychological characteristics define personal identity. That is: memories from childhood, though you are different now, are part of who you are. Professor B. ends this session with a reminder of a story: The Prince and The Pauper.