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Transcendence of the Ego (The Non‐Existent Knight)
Author(s) -
Fraassen Bas C. van
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
ratio
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.475
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 1467-9329
pISSN - 0034-0006
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9329.2004.00265.x
Subject(s) - knight , relation (database) , id, ego and super ego , action (physics) , philosophy , supervenience , transcendence (philosophy) , consciousness , epistemology , psychoanalysis , psychology , metaphysics , computer science , physics , quantum mechanics , database , astronomy
Abstract I exist, but I am not a thing among things; X exists if and only if there is something such that it=X. This is consistent, and it is a view that can be supported. Calvino’s novel The Non‐Existent Knight can be read so as to illustrate this view. But what is my relation to the things there are if I am not identical with any of them – things such as my arms, my garden, the city I live in? I name this the Gurduloo problem, after the Knight’s page. This relation must be one that admits of degrees; I suggest that we say that I manifest myself through the things thus associated with me. Several pseudo‐problems, pertaining to volitional action, supervenience, observability, and the emergence of consciousness, dissolve upon inspection.