Skip to main content

Heart or head: where is your sense of self, your sense of I-ness?



Is your sense of self in your heart or in your head—or some other part of your body? Is your sense of self within your body at all, or is it a nebulous feeling and not really part of you? An article in Discover asked this very question (December 2014, www.discovermagazine.com), seeking to find the answer in children.

When Emma Harris, science writer, asked her four-year-old daughter where her “self” was, the child immediately pointed to her heart. This surprised Harris because she identified her “self” as “sitting behind my eyes.” When she asked her friends to ask their children, the answers ranged from the side of the head, inside the eyes, or their heart. So who is right?

In 2008 Italian researchers asked 59 participants, through structured interviews, to point on a human model “the I-that-perceives.” It resulted in 83% of them pointing between and behind their eyes.

In 2011 two German researchers showed 87 online participants a silhouette of a human form and asked them to indicate a spot where they believed their “self” was. Most indicated a point near their brain, while others indicated a point near their heart.

Two Danish researchers from the University of Copenhagen used physical pointers to locate the position of “self” with their participants. The sliding pointer travelled over their body and participants were asked to call out when the pointer hit a spot believed to be the “self.” However, they found that if the researchers began the movement of the pointer from the top of the body, most participants stopped at the upper face. When the researchers started the movement of the pointer from the feet, the same participants stopped the pointer at the upper torso (body). When questioned about the discrepancy, they said, “both felt right.”

How can researchers answer the abstract question without bias? And what does a sense of “self” mean anyway? Is it the same notion as consciousness as defined by philosophers studying consciousness and the self? The early philosophers, such as Rene Descartes believed that our conscious selves (our minds) are separate from our physical bodies, but recent philosophers don’t necessarily agree with this dualist view. Neurologists, the brain scientists, indicate that “self” is a result of all activities from the brain and body of a person. Philosopher Daniel Dennett calls it the multiple draft model because the sense of “self” changes constantly.

We are no clearer—is a sense of self the place where we think, or the place where we feel, or is it where we act, or hear, or see, or touch, or know …


So, where is your sense of “self” – the point where you say this my “I-ness”—this is me: the heart or the head or a multiple model or a separation schema? Try asking your children.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2016 update on Rike Park, Tbilisi: from construction to busy park

From a flat patch of uninteresting dirt, Rike Park in Tbilisi, Georgia, has transformed in four years (from 2014-2016) into a busy park full of trees, flower beds, sculptures, fountains, and events. Rike (Rikhe) Park is on the left bank of the Mt’k’vari River (the Kura River) near the Old City of Tbilisi. The Peace Bridge links the right bank to Rike Park. Rike Park is below the hillside Presidential Palace and, via cable car, it is the starting point for the ride to Sololaki Ridge (with the Narikala Fortress and the Mother of Georgia statue). The glass box-shaped cable car terminus was opened on 23 June 2012, and since then the park has continually developed into a ‘people’s park’ where people can walk around, eat at the nearby restaurants, sit next to the statue of American president Ronald Reagan, climb the steps to Avlabari district, and access the sights of Meidan Square, the Peace Bridge, the Metekhi Church, the Old City, the waterfall, the sulphur baths, and t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. ...
1 comment
Read more

Hop on hop off bus tourism comes to Tbilisi, Georgia

City Sightseeing buses have arrived in Tbilisi. The iconic red double-decker buses, a feature of many cities around the world since the company was established in Seville, Spain in 1999, is now in six continents and almost 100 cities. The company established its Tbilisi business in November 2013, with its operations commencing in February 2014. The 90-minute tour stops at 11 major locations in Tbilisi (with 2 to 5 minute waiting times at each location): the Old City (where it commences), Freedom Square, Rose Revolution Square, Marjanishvili Square, the Dry Bridge, Konka, Avlabari, Metekhi, Akhundov Museum, the Sulfur Baths, and European Square. Passengers can hop off at any stop and see the sights, hopping back onto the next bus at any time. Alternatively, passengers can remain on the bus for the whole tour and take photographs when the bus stops at each location. There are one day (24-hour) passes (for 35 lari – about $20) and 48-hour passes for 55 lari, with family d...
2 comments
Read more