Why am I me?

Question

Why is my I the I that percieves in reference to myself such that I am convinced that I am the genuine I? If I were not the genuine I, there would be many I's, but if a genuine I exists, then there is only one I. Why is it then that I percieve myself to be the genuine I distinguished from the world. Am I not the only true I considering this reasoning?

This is a rather depressing thought that I would like to have resolved. The two difficult questions are:

1. Why is my I the I that percieves in reference to myself, such that I am convinced that I am the genuine I.

2. Why can't I grasp that there are other true I's each with their own perceptive ability, such that they percieve in reference to theirself in the same way that I can as expressed in the first question.

Also, I have difficutly with the following:

Premise A: If there are many I's, then there is no genuine I.
Premise B: I percieve myself to be the genuine I.
Therefore:
Conclusion C: There are no other I's.

Please help.

Answer 1

Premise A is an obvious non-sequitur. Premise B is a non-sequitur, proceeding from A. Conclusion C is in error. Think; premise A. The analogy would be thus; " if there are many ( trees, people, cows, egos, apples, consciousness, or what ever ) then there is no genuine "whatever". You you are having difficulty here, perhaps you need to do something else with your time

PS Your whole premise could be called an invalid syllogism, I guess.

Answer 2

There is something called the mindscape, akin to the landscape but it's the landscape of your mind. I have a mindscape, too, as does everyone else. Your world is your mindscape, and in that sense it's unique, because it's a product of your thoughts, experiences, feelings, etc. Mine is mine. Mine is genuine and unique, as is yours. Therefore your argument, "There is no genuine I" falls down because there are lots and lots (6 billion at last count).

You have to separate the products of your mind from the rest of reality. That's why creative artists, writers, etc., are so valued - they display the products of their own, individual minds for the rest of us to see and think about.

It's a big question you've asked, but I hope I've gone some way towards answering it.

Answer 3

I'm not a professional psycho-therapist, but from all of your illogical twaddling I am genuinely convinced that you are truly dabbling in the extremely dangerous arena of "introspection," an over-obsession of the self, called by some therapists, "The Hell of Self". If I were you I would attempt to break this cycle by focusing in on that which is outside the self. Transfix yourself on living Life and enjoying the company of others rather than enveloping yourself with narcissism. You need to "forget" about yourself in order to reclaim who you really are, because introspection leads to an illusory self and an illusory existence that isolates the self from the realm of True Reality, and severely effects connecting into relational experiences with others beyond the self. It leads to the self turned in on itself, an ego-centricism steeped in self-gratifying sexuality, acute masturbation and other skewed self-absorbed preoccupations that creates a vicious isolated circle of self-imprisonment and self-destruction.

Answer 4

Truly a challenging question!

You (subject) are trying to see yourself as an object. Perhaps there is a problem here. Can subject be objectified? Perhaps it is not possible. Subject has to seek some other way of knowing oneself.

Regarding the one-many logic, you may want to consider the categories of appearance and reality. One is probably the reality, and many is probably appearance.

I suggest you read the works of Ken Wilber in this regard.

Answer 5

What a question. You are you. You are unique and there is only one you. Therefore, you must think as yourself and do as you would do. In the ways of the cosmos, there is only one you at this present time. If there were more than one you then you may be twins. Genuine and unique you are. For there is no other you, than you.

Answer 6

Why can't there be many 'Is?' If there are truly other conscious humans, which there are, then they precieve themselves in the same way you precieve yourself and therefore there are many genuine 'Is'. In your reasoning, possibly the only genuine 'I' is the collective consciousness of the entire functioning human race.

Answer 7

if you were not the real you then you would be the real somebody else. you would then identify "you" as being the somebody else, therefore making you you.

of course you may be one of millions of yourself inhabiting various parallel realities. that makes the you in all the realities you inhabit the real you. the original you is merely a "potential" you. it was created before the beginning of time as a concept. in several of the infinite realities there is no you. in several others there is a you. all the yous should each treat themselves as the "real you" because they are the real you.

Answer 8

The mold was broken and now there can never be another you. Just watch out the human clonists don't get ahold of any of your DNA.

Answer 9

everyone perceives themselves to be the genuine I. the main word being PERCEIVES. our experiences are genuine to us and not to anyone else. The life that you life is the only one that you live. you can not experience someone else's life.

Answer 10

I hate when I start thinking about things like that, because you feel like your mind is warping or something... Give it a few years, and it may become clearer.