Andrea Altobrando - The Realizations of the Self

Editors

Andrea Altobrando , Takuya Niikawa and Richard Stone

The Realizations of the Self

Editors

Andrea Altobrando

China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing, China

Takuya Niikawa

Institut Jean Nicod, Paris, France

Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

Richard Stone

Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

ISBN 978-3-319-94699-3 e-ISBN 978-3-319-94700-6

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94700-6

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018949034

The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018

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Contents

Andrea Altobrando , Takuya Niikawa and Richard Stone

Part I Understanding the Self

Akiko Frischhut

Shigeru Taguchi

Michael G. Butler and Shaun Gallagher

Georg Northoff

Gilles Campagnolo

Part II IntermezzoSpeaking of Oneself

Galen Strawson

Galen Strawson and Andrea Altobrando

Part III Fulfilling the Self

Tomohiko Kondo

Yudai Suzuki

Lidia de Tienda Palop

Pierfrancesco Biasetti

Nicola Liberati

Ching-Yuen Cheung

Richard Stone

Index

List of Figures

Fig. 5.1 Temporal receptive windows (TRW) and temporal expansion windows (TWE) for processing of external and internal information

Fig. 5.2 Transformation of the temporal features of CMS neural activity (left) into corresponding temporal features of self-continuity (middle) and identity (right)

Contributors

Andrea Altobrando

China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing, China

Pierfrancesco Biasetti

University of Padova, Padua, Italy

Michael G. Butler

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg, TX, USA

Gilles Campagnolo

CNRS, EHESS, Centrale Marseille, AMSE, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France

Ching-Yuen Cheung

Department of Japanese Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong

Akiko Frischhut

Akita International University, Akita, Japan

Shaun Gallagher

University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA

Tomohiko Kondo

Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan

Nicola Liberati

University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

Takuya Niikawa

Institut Jean Nicod, Paris, France

Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan

Georg Northoff

Institute of Mental Health Research, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada

Richard Stone

Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan

Galen Strawson

Texas University at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

Yudai Suzuki

International Budo University, Katsuura, Japan

Shigeru Taguchi

Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan

Lidia de Tienda Palop

University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain

Every now and then they were awarded prizesSelf-help by Smiles, and other books suitable for perusal by persons suffering from almost complete obliteration of the mental faculties.

Robert Tressell, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

Within the history of philosophy and across different cultures, few questions have been raised as frequently as what the realization of oneself means . Certainly, one of the very driving forces of philosophy seems to be the clarification of the self and its life. However, in spite of this, within recent years, there have been few serious critical and philosophical efforts to discuss what exactly it means to realize oneself. To this degree, there is a need to critically assess the meaning of self-realization .

Certainly, the topic of self-realization is present in many books concerning ethics, psychology and philosophy of psychologyas well as religious (or perhaps pseudo-religious) works. Yet, in spite of this, recently, there have been no books which clearly, directly and specifically address such a concept. The publications in this regard have mainly considered the philosophical issue of self-realization in historical terms, i.e. by means of interpretations, and expositions, of past authors, especially the ancient Greeks, Romans, and (often exoticized) Eastern thinkerssuch as Laozi, Buddha , Confucius, or the Veda. As mentioned, for current theories, the topic is nowadays mainly left to some religious (and dubiously scientific) works, as well as to some researchers in applied psychology. An up-to-date, open and scientifically rigorous, philosophical discourse on the very concept of self-realization is still lacking. We certainly ought to think of this as a gap that needs to be filled in order to enable an open, critical assessment of both religious and political propaganda. We should furthermore recognize the importance this can have for establishing a critical and democratic political agenda concerning issues concerning the individual and social good as well as well-being .

Indeed, it is not actually obvious what it means to realize oneself. As a matter of fact, both terms included in such an expression are far from clear. What is the self that is supposed to be realized? A person ? An ego ? A specific form of being which is different from what one is as a whole human being , or as a person ? And what does it mean to realize? To achieve a goal? To actualize a plan? To create oneself into a specific shape? To draw out ones own potential? Perhaps more importantly: Is self-realization an act achieved by the self, or is self-realization something more akin to a re-shaping of the self which we only experience passively? What is the relationship between the selfs realization and its environment (both social and natural)? Moreover, what of the relationship between the self and the author of its realization? Should we not, indeed, distinguish between the actualization of what one is, i.e. of the (assumed) essence of someone, and the shaping of someone or of someones life according to a specific model or ideal?