The Self Is Not Fictional

On the perils of doing metaphysics by way of pathologies

[image: (left) David Hume by Allan Ramsay, 1766 (right) Buddha as an avatar at the Dwaraka Tirumala temple, Andhra Pradesh (Wikipedia)]

Steven Hales is a professor of philosophy at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. As he describes in an essay for Aeon/Psyche, a traumatic personal experience has convinced him that there is no self, that the word “self” simply refers to a convenient fiction. He is in good company in his conclusion, from Buddha to David…