Untimely meditations on the relation between self and non-self
Alessio Moretti
Routledge eBooks October 9, 2018 DOI: 10.4324/9781351232319-10 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key points | Argues that Hume's case against an experiential "self" is bound up with the rejection of unnoticed sensations and unconscious judgments, which the author links to falsificationism. The author proposes that observable features of experience with observable effects replace these unobservable operations, and contends that objects phenomenally independent of observation are no stranger than undeformed objects behind moving water. |
Abstract
David Hume presents two versions of his arguments against the existence, within experience, of anything that is a “self” or personal identity. Philosophers of various stripes were telling that the identity of the mind resolves the plurality of different perceptions into a unity. The psychic forces of the higher activities, of which the self is formed, are often invisible as such, but they are certainly operative everywhere. The refusal of unnoticed sensations and of unconscious judgments, which was a logical consequence of the acceptance of falsificationism, eliminated this realm of “subjective” but unobservable operations. In their place had to go observable factors with potentially observable consequences, actual features of experience that have effects on other actual features of experience. The existence of objects phenomenally independent of the act of observation is thus no stranger than the existence of undeformed objects behind a veil of water in movement.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mechanisms of mindfulness | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |