The Self Is Not A Thing, But A Process

Thomas Metzinger
577 words, 9K views, 7 comments

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El yo no es una cosa, sino un proceso
--por Thomas Metzinger

El cuerpo y la mente están en constante cambio. Nada en nosotr@s es realmente igual de un momento a otro. Sin embargo, el yo representa una experiencia fenoménica muy fuerte de igualdad, y está claro que esto es adaptativo o útil para un organismo biológico que necesita planificar para el futuro. Si quieres guardar algo de comida para el invierno o quieres ahorrar algo de dinero en tus cuentas bancarias o trabajar en tu reputación, es que estás planeando para tener éxito en el futuro, y no lo harías si no tuvieras un sentimiento muy fuerte de que va a ser la misma entidad la que obtenga la recompensa en el futuro. [...]

Así que, obviamente, en un contexto biológico o corporal, puede ser bueno tener esta experiencia de que todo esto, la cosecha de los frutos, le sucederá a la misma persona. Aunque, de nuevo, estrictamente hablando, en realidad nunca le sucede a la misma persona, pero tampoco es cierto que no haya nadie allí. Por supuesto, hay una similitud suficiente en el tiempo. No cambiamos arbitrariamente y es una especie de flujo. Me gusta mucho la imagen que usó una vez el filósofo Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Dijo que podrías tener una cuerda, una cuerda larga hecha de hilos muy diferentes de diferentes colores. Y que ningún hilo, ni el rojo, ni el azul, ni el verde, atravesaría toda la longitud de la cuerda. Sin embargo, la cuerda podría ser muy robusta, fuerte y estable, aunque no haya un solo hilo que la atraviese de principio a fin. Creo que es una buena imagen de cómo somos tanto a nivel corporal, como a nivel psicológico.

A pesar de esto, contamos con sólidas experiencias de autonomía y autodeterminación. Tenemos la experiencia de controlar nuestro comportamiento, y también tenemos una experiencia de autodeterminación mental, controlando nuestra atención, nuestro estado mental y todas estas cosas. Como muestra la ciencia moderna, estas experiencias pueden no ser completamente verídicas, sino simplemente adaptativas. Puede ser funcional tener la sólida experiencia de que tienes el control, pero desde la perspectiva de la tercera persona de la ciencia, parece que tales experiencias pueden no reflejar la verdad de nuestra naturaleza. El yo no es una cosa, sino un proceso.

Preguntas semilla para la reflexión: ¿Cómo te relacionas con la noción de que el “tú” que toma la decisión y el “tú” que recibe el resultado pueden no ser lo mismo? ¿Puedes compartir una historia personal de un momento en el que te diste cuenta de que tu maquillaje cambiaba constantemente, al mismo tiempo que sabías que había alguien detrás del cambio? ¿Qué te ayuda a conciliar el hecho de que tus experiencias en realidad no le están sucediendo a la misma persona y al mismo tiempo no es cierto que no haya nadie allí?
De: https://deconstructingyourself.com/what-is-the-self-metzinger.html

From: https://deconstructingyourself.com/what-is-the-self-metzinger.html

SEED QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: How do you relate to the notion that the ‘you’ making the decision and the ‘you’ receiving the outcome may not be the same? Can you share a personal story of a time you became aware of your constantly changing makeup, while also knowing there’s somebody there beneath the change? What helps you reconcile the fact that your experiences are not really happening to the same person and at the same time it’s not true that there’s nobody there?

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7 Past Reflections

On Jul 10, 2022 Utkarsh P Parikh wrote :

One making the decision is of him/her own. The outcome received may be the result of influence of others, situations, change in the perspective of one's. As by the time, one become more & more strong in terms of self-determination.
throughout last 7 to 8 years, I came to know that anything you want, you will get it, if you worth deserve it. Here, the deserver means capability in terms of being human who is always ready to do anything good to others, he/she can. To me, this process is going on & on.

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On Jun 29, 2022 Ted wrote :

The thing that struck me most in this reading is something it left out, and the picture with the caterpillar, pupa, and butterfly reminded me of: which is the role that conditioning plays in who we are. The caterpillar is somehow born with the conditioned destiny to evolve and the detailed instincts to accomplish it. We are born into this body with the genetic heredity of all past generations, our nervous system and brain, and then we grow up surrounded by family, culture, society, and others who tell us who we are, and how to be in this life. But somehow being just a predestined repetition of the past throughout this life is not satifactory for most of us, and that very dissatisfaction itself and longing for freedom may also be an inherited inclination as well as something we have been told. I firmly believe that the purpose of this life is for each of us to discover what the purpose of our life is, and discovering who it is that undertakes that exploration is a beginning,... [View Full Comment] The thing that struck me most in this reading is something it left out, and the picture with the caterpillar, pupa, and butterfly reminded me of: which is the role that conditioning plays in who we are. The caterpillar is somehow born with the conditioned destiny to evolve and the detailed instincts to accomplish it. We are born into this body with the genetic heredity of all past generations, our nervous system and brain, and then we grow up surrounded by family, culture, society, and others who tell us who we are, and how to be in this life. But somehow being just a predestined repetition of the past throughout this life is not satifactory for most of us, and that very dissatisfaction itself and longing for freedom may also be an inherited inclination as well as something we have been told. I firmly believe that the purpose of this life is for each of us to discover what the purpose of our life is, and discovering who it is that undertakes that exploration is a beginning, so I choose to to explore that whole-heartedly, and with the best diligence I can manage. I also look forward each week to see how Mark chooses to label himself in this circle. Insight meditation as some of us may have been doing for the last hour provides a powerful opportunity to undertake the process of self discovery consciously by starting with the mind- what thoughts are there and why? Where do they come from? How do the sequences of thoughts shift and change over time? How do I spend my time? Can I choose and direct my thoughts? Who is it that is observing and aware of all this? At first it may seem like all the factors of my life are the effects of some external cause or condition, but looking deeper I can recognize a hereditary pattern preferring comfort and familiar predictability, and another equally hereditary pattern of being bored with the past, needing the stimulation of adrenaline and seeking any distraction from the past- and I DO have a choice of which of those conditioned patterns to prioritize in any given situation. In this reading, the image he uses of the threads weaving together to make this life is reasonable- we all have roles and relationships in this life with beginnings and endings, the role of being a child and relating to our parents, the role of student in school, the role of being friends with another, perhaps the role of a job or as a married partner or parent of a child- yet who we are goes beyond just that accumulation of threads- there always is someone or something that is playing the roles, and more importantly determines how they are played- whether the role is endured with resentment or perhaps embraced whole-heartedly with joy. The experience of life depends much more on those, rather than just on which specific roles were played or for how long. In the final paragraph he mentions the experience of autonomy and self-determination, of controlling our attention and behavior perhaps just being adaptive reactions to the circumstances of this life- but that just begs the question of who or what it is that has (or wants to have) that experience of independence and choice. So do we perhaps have a soul that temporarily has this body, and can become enlightened, or reincarnate, or perhaps visits heaven, nirvana, or hell as well as this earthly life at some point? Or are those perhaps just mortal thoughts that attempt to capture something too vast to fit into words or concepts? [Hide Full Comment]

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On Jun 29, 2022 David Doane wrote :

All that is is always changing, including me, so me that makes a decision and me that receives the outcome are not the same. But as I see life, me that makes a decision and receives the outcome is not real me. It was a long time ago that I began becoming aware that my body-mind combine and real me are not one and the same. My body-mind combine is my make-up or appearance, while real me is the core or essence of me that expresses as my body-mind and all the rest of what I call me. My body-mind, like all make-up, is surface and very temporary and constantly changing, and beneath that so to speak is real me. What helps me reconcile all this is my experience and faith that there is a consistent essence or core that is really and consistently there, and it manifests a make-up surface, a body-mind, that goes through a lifetime of changes.

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On Jun 28, 2022 anand damani wrote :

The self and the physical body are two distinct entities which are unified into a human being. Understanding each one of the entity has given me absolute clarity about the existential reality of the human being. The self is the one that understands and experiences. The body is just a tool that helps the self interact with the external world to understand by learning as well as express the learnt understanding.