Ourcellves? (Identity)

by dhw, Sunday, April 06, 2014, 15:56 (3666 days ago)

The materialist view of the self is that it is composed of cells, and when the cells die, the self dies with it. This view is one argument against free will, because it is the cells (which are not of our making) that take the decisions.
This view is disputed by libertarians and by dualists. Another school of thought is that consciousness and the self emerge from the interaction between the cells, and there is even the possibility that this emergent self (the soul) may survive the death of the cells (i.e. take on a form that is independent of them).-We have been discussing the use of language and logic, and so without committing myself to any of these schools of thought, I would like to examine the logical implications of the concept of the "cellf". If it is true that we are our cells (forget about dualism for now), how does that change the concept of self? The unique combination of cells that is "me" is still me, regardless of where those cells came from. The consciousness engendered by my cells is "my" consciousness, and the conscious decisions taken by my cells are "my" decisions, taken as a result of "my" cells weighing up the pros and cons. And although I think we would all agree that my upbringing, experiences etc. do somehow influence the behaviour of my cells, the way my cells respond to my upbringing and my experiences will still constitute "my" responses, because "I" am my cells. Therefore the argument that "we" are governed by our cells and consequently have no will of our own becomes a contradiction in terms, because if "we" ARE our cells, we are governed by ourselves. And that is as good a definition of autonomy as you can get.