What if Questioned I: Reflections on Self-Understanding

What does it mean to be a self, and a self which lives? At first, we would seek to alter the "which" into a "who," giving us the sense not only of agency but also of individuality and even perhaps that of purpose. Who is the self who lives? But a distinction must be immediately made; that between self and selfhood. For if we share life with other creatures grand and minuscule, we also share the conception of self with all other persons, and extending in two directions; those predecessors to...