[kake55]

What part of the body are "we", or what are we? What I mean is, that the thing which controls the outer body, feels, sees and hears. We can't be the brain as we have no control of some of the duties that the brain has -> e.g We can't control most of the inner systems and some reflexes.

Sorry for the really weird wording, Its just so confusing trying to define "me".
Are we a certain part of the brain that is responsible for deciding what we do with the main outer body parts depending on the situations that we can understand from our senses?

I do belive in souls and spirits but what exactly is a soul or a spirit? Just a conscious?

I tried finding some info on this but I can't seem to be able to word it well in search engines.

Not sure where to put this (sorry if it's in the wrong forum) except that it's been killing my head in trying to find out what I'm, that I have the power to give orders to the brain to transmit a message to the hands to type this out.
Is there even an answer to this?

[RinniieX]

I think you have asked a question which psychologists do not know the answer to or who ever looks into this kind of thing...

[greekguy]

we are dust in the wind....

[Bigyouth]

Good Old Watts has the answer,

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OAVM_Xk_o9E" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

edit: or not...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAVM_Xk_o9E

[kake55]

(Original post by RinniieX)
I think you have asked a question which psychologists do not know the answer to or who ever looks into this kind of thing...

:/

(Original post by Bigyouth)
Good Old Watts has the answer,

&lt;iframe width=&quot;420&quot; height=&quot;315&quot; src=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/embed/OAVM_Xk_o9E&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;

edit: or not...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAVM_Xk_o9E

He explains what we aren't but not what we are...

[Bigyouth]

(Original post by kake55)
:/


He explains what we aren't but not what we are...

doesen't that answer your question?

[ROYP]

Are you talking about consciousness/the mind?

edit: I'm going to throw this link your way http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_mind. If that isn't what you're talking about it seems closely related so you might be able to find what you're looking for from it.

[21stcenturyphantom]

I think you answered your own question. There is no one part of you that defines 'you'. As an organism, you are a sophisticated and complex mammal with a highly developed brain, but an animal like any other, nonetheless. However YOU, as a person, as an identity, are the results of everything you perceive, understand, speak, think, facilitate, your actions, everything cumulatively; is you. This is how I would describe it. If you forever lived your life in a box devoid of any input, would you have any identity? I doubt it as the only stimulation you would receive would be through your biological senses. However I do believe this would be a question that philosophers and psychologists would be endeared to study, but not I, so I am only offering you my personal opinion.

[ROYP]

This sort of question always messes with my head. I can't describe the feeling but if I had to assign a colour to it, it'd be purple.

[kake55]

(Original post by Bigyouth)
doesen't that answer your question?

Well if it was 100% sure that none knows the answer to my question then the answer to my question is that there is no answer.

argh, why are humans so limited to knowledge, there are so many questions that there is no answer to...

In religion.. Who created God? It can't just randomly appear and be all powerful can it? And even further, if something created God... Who created the creator of god? and Who created the creator of the creator of the ???? of God?

In science: Ok so some particles randomly appear out of nowhere, just randomly started existing, decided due to some jibberish reason to collide and explode into the building blocks of the universe that somehow lead to creatures existing that start to wonder why they exist.

Either Death will give you the answer to everything, or you will die knowing that the more you know, the more you realise that you know nothing.

And tommorow I will wake up trying to forget everything I typed cos its messing with my head.

(Original post by ROYP)
Are you talking about consciousness/the mind?

edit: I'm going to throw this link your way http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_mind. If that isn't what you're talking about it seems closely related so you might be able to find what you're looking for from it.

Will have a look at it, thank you.

(Original post by 21stcenturyphantom)
I think you answered your own question. There is no one part of you that defines 'you'. As an organism, you are a sophisticated and complex mammal with a highly developed brain, but an animal like any other, nonetheless. However YOU, as a person, as an identity, are the results of everything you perceive, understand, speak, think, facilitate, your actions, everything cumulatively; is you. This is how I would describe it. If you forever lived your life in a box devoid of any input, would you have any identity? I doubt it as the only stimulation you would receive would be through your biological senses. However I do believe this would be a question that philosophers and psychologists would be endeared to study, but not I, so I am only offering you my personal opinion.

Well yes, external factors define you, but what are you in the first place? Whatever it is,it is something we all started as very little (ie when we were babies and not remembering) and grew depending on these external factors. arggg

(Original post by ROYP)

This sort of question always messes my head. I can't describe the feeling but if I had to assign a colour to it, it'd be purple.

+1

[accessinsight]

(Original post by kake55)
What part of the body are "we", or what are we? What I mean is, that the thing which controls the outer body, feels, sees and hears. We can't be the brain as we have no control of some of the duties that the brain has -> e.g We can't control most of the inner systems and some reflexes.

Sorry for the really weird wording, Its just so confusing trying to define "me".
Are we a certain part of the brain that is responsible for deciding what we do with the main outer body parts depending on the situations that we can understand from our senses?

I do belive in souls and spirits but what exactly is a soul or a spirit? Just a conscious?

I tried finding some info on this but I can't seem to be able to word it well in search engines.

Not sure where to put this (sorry if it's in the wrong forum) except that it's been killing my head in trying to find out what I'm, that I have the power to give orders to the brain to transmit a message to the hands to type this out.
Is there even an answer to this?

Thats a very difficult question and I dont think anyone can give a proper answer that you will understand. Google "self and no self". This is related to Buddhism and Buddhism speaks about it clearly. There is nothing we can call self because if by definition self means something like, the ability to "control", we know we can't get rid of a disease we have at our will. No we can get rid of death.

[Louise_x]

It's a great philosophical question, to which there are a few answers. I only studied philosophy for a year, so I don't think I'd feel comfortable going into this in detail, but try looking up the "body theory" and the "brain theory" and Locke's 'animalism', as well Derek Parfit. Personally, the latter made a lot of sense to me (in that it is your experiences and mental traits are continuous and have led to you being who you are), but many others will disagree and find holes in this theory.

[Lumos]

mind/body/soul innit.
I think 'we' are our consciousness. So long as we have memories and a constant stream of thought processes, those conscious ideas in our minds make us who we are, even if they are always changing.

[kake55]

(Original post by accessinsight)
Thats a very difficult question and I dont think anyone can give a proper answer that you will understand. Google "self and no self". This is related to Buddhism and Buddhism speaks about it clearly. There is nothing we can call self because if by definition self means something like, the ability to "control", we know we can't get rid of a disease we have at our will. No we can get rid of death.

Read a bit but I think I didn't choose the best link, It was basicly about how asking if you exist or not only leads to suffering and stress, which is true.

(Original post by Louise_x)
It's a great philosophical question, to which there are a few answers. I only studied philosophy for a year, so I don't think I'd feel comfortable going into this in detail, but try looking up the "body theory" and the "brain theory" and Locke's 'animalism', as well Derek Parfit. Personally, the latter made a lot of sense to me (in that it is your experiences and mental traits are continuous and have led to you being who you are), but many others will disagree and find holes in this theory.

Thanks, I'll have a look tommorow, If I continue reading more confusing theories, I won't be able to go to school tommorow

[Bigyouth]

(Original post by kake55)
Well if it was 100% sure that none knows the answer to my question then the answer to my question is that there is no answer.

argh, why are humans so limited to knowledge, there are so many questions that there is no answer to...

In religion.. Who created God? It can't just randomly appear and be all powerful can it? And even further, if something created God... Who created the creator of god? and Who created the creator of the creator of the ???? of God?

In science: Ok so some particles randomly appear out of nowhere, just randomly started existing, decided due to some jibberish reason to collide and explode into the building blocks of the universe that somehow lead to creatures existing that start to wonder why they exist.

Either Death will give you the answer to everything, or you will die knowing that the more you know, the more you realise that you know nothing.

And tommorow I will wake up trying to forget everything I typed cos its messing with my head.



Will have a look at it, thank you.




Well yes, external factors define you, but what are you in the first place? Whatever it is,it is something we all started as very little (ie when we were babies and not remembering) and grew depending on these external factors. arggg



+1

It is because you are using your intrinsic logic to find an answer to a non-logical question. When it comes to some form of transient being, be it God, Hashem, Allah, the Spaghetti Monster, whatever you fancy, it is impossible to think in any linear fashion.

Whatever we see as 'being' is derived from human cognition. Anything we feel, we sense or touch is purely our own. Supposedly, this transient being, whatever it be, is beyond our ability to comprehend or understand. It is not limited by time or by space, as we appear to be... there is no logic at all to it.

What is common to all creatures, and especially in human terms, is language. Whilst it connects us, it limits our perception. In nearly all languages, there is a requirement of a subject and an object, and a necessary verb which defines the 'event' that occurs. There can be no subject without an object which it may therefore assert its existence against. And there can be no subject if it is not 'doing' something, that is why we have the word 'being'.

Like the famous 'it', in "it's raining", what is the "it"?

You search for 'self' the same way a snake chases its tail (not that they're as notorious for doing as dogs are, but the fluid motion fits the metaphor). You go on searching in circles for something you already are, something you already have, you're just unaware of it.

But what is death? If you knew what it was and when it is coming, you must have been dead before , but were you conscious to experience and know what it was?

Its a funny word, 'everything'. The zen, founded of the ying/yang philosophy see's it as forever joined with 'nothing'. If you have one object, lets say, a lamp.. no reason why, (but I do love the lamp), any object, in one hand; and you have no lamp in the other. What defines the 'fact' that you have a lamp in one hand and not in the other? You see the lamp as an object defined by its outline, by the lack of 'lamp particles' surrounding it, so it is a product of 'nothing', of non-existance, that makes it come into 'being' as information we can comprehend. There would be nothing we could define, so, 'everything', if there were not a non-existant force around it. Nothing becomes Everything. Therefore, we are but silhouettes in a sea of 'nothing'.

If you look at the oscillations of a wave, there can be no positive without the negative. For a wavelength to occur there must be a diametric 'redox', if you want to be scientific, otherwise it would simply be a straight line.

Essentially that is what the ying and the yang are, opposing forces which come to an equilibria, a thing that we call life..

and in order for me to continue that 'thing' tomorrow, I probably should have slept half an hour ago...

[neeloo]

The answer my freind is blowing in the wind.....