Honestly if the four authors from this unit were to get
together it would be a very interesting conversation. Jill Bolte Taylor is very
focused on the differences in mannerism when it comes to technicalities of our
brains, while Joan Didion is a person who just lives life to her own
understanding. I believe that each would agree that the idea of ourselves stems
from those inner thoughts and conversations. There is no ‘singular self’ but a
melting pot of our own experience that creates who we are and our different personalities.
These are what able us to know ourselves and who we truly are as individuals. In
‘First Person Plural’ Paul Bloom says, “They have different desires, and they
fight for control—bargaining with, deceiving, and plotting against one another.”
I agree with what he is saying but at the same time I disagree, because for the
most part each part of ourselves is working in sync with the other, essentially
balancing themselves out. Alice Walker on the other hand is someone I can
relate to more, she changed as time progressed and came to realize her
different sides. She had an injury to her eye at a very young age and that totally
changed her perception of herself. Though she seemed different on the inside,
throughout the story she would say how everyone told her that “You did not
change.” When she got her eye corrected it was like something clicked inside of
her and, “Almost immediately I become a different person from the girl who does
not raise her head.” That is when I understood why everyone felt the way they
did about her and I can relate on that level. I used to look completely
different when I was younger and I feel like I am trapped within myself just trying
to be released. So, I supposed I would lean more towards the ideas that Paul
Bloom and Alice Walker were portraying in their stories, stories that were
relatable to my own ideas of self.
First Person Plural-Paul Bloom & Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self-Alice Walker
ReplyDeleteTeam Minotaur-Melisa Barth
If all the past four authors were to have a dinner discussion on what makes the self, I believe the conversations would be divided. You have two that study the brain being Jill Bolte Taylor and Paul Bloom would discuss the “what makes the self” from parts of our brain functions. Taylor would defend that the left part of our brain is what creates the self in a singular image, the “I am” and Bloom would defend that we do not have a singular use of the “I am” but rather plural or several parts of the “I am”. Joan Didion and Alice Walker seem to be incline to the way we see ourselves due to memories that makes up the part of the self in us all. How we see ourselves and how we perceive others to see us. I would side with Paul Bloom that we have many different parts of us that make us who we are as person. I have the inner child, the adult woman, the mother, the wife etc. Many of these author’s agree memory has a big part of our “self” and it is what brings us together as a person in regards to personality, emotions and reaction. But it is up to us as an individual that has the biggest impact of who and what we become as a person. We are the person responsible for the image we allow others to see. As philosopher Jerry Fodor once put it “If, in short, there is a community of computers living inside my head, there had better be somebody who is in charge; and by God, it had better be me.” I totally get this. So many things have such an influence in our lives. It is up to us how we process and use the influence that will have a strong impact on our own personal life. I like to often take input from many different points of view from family and friends before making a huge decision. Something very important like returning to college after 18 years. I know what I think might to be the best decision and will ultimately be the one to make this or be the one in charge of this decision. However, getting the input from outside views and processing everything helps give me a clear understanding of what the best decision to make will be and that this will be the best one for my own personal benefit.
I agree that if the four authors got together that they would agree that there are multiple selves in everyone. I think that they would all agree that the thought process makes us who we are, and is our “self.” They all have different points they could make and different experiences that they could share that could help to explain this. I think I would agree with their point of view because at different times you feel different ways and the way you think is not always the same. I think that Paul Bloom in “First Person Plural” explains how to approach this very well when he says, “We used to think that the hard part of the question “How can I be happy?” had to do with nailing down the definition of happy. But it may have more to do with the definition of I.” I agree because if the “I” part was all the same, then being able to define happiness or pick out things to make you happy would be much simpler. Personally, I have things that I am pretty sure would make me happy, but some of those things are completely different and several would not be able to go together. I feel like in a way, this shows how one version of my “self” could be different from another that I may have.
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