CFS Lecture by Jonardon Ganeri: "Self and Nonself in Biology and Buddhist Psychology"

Lecture by Jonardon Ganeri, Department of Philosophy, University of Sussex, UK

Abstract 

Is there a stable distinction between self and non self? And can the idea of a person survive the collapse of that distinction? I will explore these questions drawing on ideas in early Buddhist theory of mind, the work of Harry Frankfurt, and contemporary discussion of biological identity (Tauber et al.). I will claim that there is an important and illuminating analogy between Buddhist descriptions of the self/nonself distinction and immunological accounts of the biological self.