What is the Self? Flashcards
Every time my friend drinks, he says, “I’m just borrowing happiness from future me.” What philosophical idea is he exemplifying?
John Butler’s idea of the transient self
John Locke believed that only true experiences you can remember can be part of your identity. Is this true?
No, because we can develop muscle memory without conscious recollection, like a person with amnesia
Tabula rasa is the idea of _________, first put forth by which philosopher?
the soul enters the body through experience, Thomas Aquinas
Regarding the soul, Aristotle thought:
the soul is an emergent quality of the way the body is structured
What are the 3 paradoxical self metaphors?
1: Self as controller and controlled
- “I let myself go” refer to self as 2 different ppl
2: Self as geographical location
- “Im really out of it today” refer to self as an ideal place you could be
3: Self in conflict with itself
- “hard on myself” you are constantly fighting with yourself
“True Self”
There is a “self” of you that is true, private, sealed from the world that only you have access to
Introspection
turning our mental gaze inwards on ourselves
we ask ourselves questions and ONLY WE know the answer. OTHERS could not tell us these answers about ourselves
If you were reading a mystery novel, would knowing the ending lead you to enjoy the story more or less?
Ppl actually enjoy it more bc
when we introspect about our preferences we usually get it wrong
Introspective Thinking
Dan Guilbert says that others may actually be better at predicting what other peoples emotional responses than they are about their own
ex: Maria could more accurately guess how I will react to situation than how I think i will react
Nisbet & Wilson (1977)
Telling more than we can know
HYP 3: we dont know what we dont know
Some ppl were primed in an initial task when given the words “Ocean-moon” , then when asked their prefered detergent between “All” or “Tide” everyone said Tide, but they didnt even know why. They said some explanation but none of them considered the priming task
Wilson et al (1993)
Telling Good Art from Bad
? Can thinking too carefully lead to making a worse decision?
- Ppl can choose to take either a Monet or a Garfield poster home
- Told to rate (scale) how much they like each poster
- 1/2 of participants are asked to make a list of of WHY they like the painting (introspect)
Results:
-Introspect group was able to make similar # of reasons as to why they like either painting
-------2 weeks later -----
INTROSPECT GROUP when asked couldn’t recall why they liked the garfield poster…..
THE ONLY REASON THEY LIKED IT WAS BC THEY WERE TOLD TO FIND REASONS
Introspective Error
We guess what we think we would like, and it can sometimes lead us to make decisions that are worse than the ones we reflected on
Choice Blindness
(Johannson, Hall, Sikstrom, & Olsson, 2005)
84% of people state that they would be able to detect a change made in front of them
- ppl were shown 2 pictures of ppl and told to choose the most attractive
- the experimenter changes the pictures last minute and the person is actually not able to notice…they then had to make up a reason why they chose that photo (even though its not the one they chose)
Affective forecasting
We’re often bad at predicting what will make us happy vs. unhappy
In the Lego movie, Lord Businesses Vision for the Lego world is one for strict order, firm boundaries between different realms (space legos dont mingle with pirate legos) and struct rules on how to live. this is most consistent with:
Apollonian forces
- bc there is a DISTINCTION between yourself and others
-Order at the expense of vitality
