Julian Baggo: Is There A Real You?

Decent Essays
In ‘”Is There a Real You?” (TED talk video), Julian Baggini, a British philosopher, addresses the question, “Is There A Real You?”. He begins by presenting what he calls the “common sense” view of who we really are, and then he gives some examples comparing objects to humans. According to Bagginis’ idea, we are made up of memories, desires, and beliefs. During life we accumulate all of these things. I agree with Baggini on his theory because we are only human, and not machine based.
In the beginning of the TED Talk video, Baggini relates to his readers’ point of view; the “They Say”, and then very quickly puts in his “I Say” and questions it. Baggini states that there is a real self if you are looking for some inner core, essence, or unchanging “permanent truth” that is “me”. I believe the self is a process, not a thing. In one of many examples Baggini uses a watch. It is a collection of things that come together to form the watch. There is
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True statement; because then you are claiming you have never changed a day in your life, which is not true at all. Baggini likes to think of people who do think being a self, a process, something that is always changing, are “liberating”. We are liberating because we have somewhat of a control over our life, but at the same time we cant help but change. “There are limits to what we can make of ourselves. But nevertheless, we do have this capacity to, in a sense, shape ourselves”(Baggini 9:29).
Baggini also uses neuroscience to support his argument. Here, the unity is that there is no one speaking to us in the center of our brain trying to control everything. Instead, the brain consists of different processes that operate independently, but because they are interconnected, it gives us a sense of

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