Steven Poole 

Me

Review: Me by Mel ThompsonWith this entry in Acumen's diverting 'The Art of Living' series, Thompson tackles the enormous question of what is a self, says Steven Poole
  
  


With this entry in Acumen's diverting "The Art of Living" series, Thompson tackles the enormous question of what is a self. The self, he argues, is not a thing but a process, the process of the mind interacting with the world. Here is a vivid and interesting image: the mind, Thompson says, is engaged in making a 1:1 scale "map" of the world, projecting values and significance on to it. This has the happy side-effect that other people are not somehow unfathomable, but can be known through their own maps, and can engage with one another in the social activity of "interactive mapping".

Thompson writes throughout with verve and amiability, even if he does at last scrape up against the rock of question-begging that often lurks in such discussions. The "me" is defined as the ongoing mapping-process done by the "I". Right, so who or what is the "I"? "The 'I' is the point from which I gain my perspective on the world," Thompson explains. OK, but who is that second "I"? Or, as Bob Dylan asked: "Who are you anyway?"

 

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