Is there a real you? | Julian Baggini | TEDxYouth@Manchester
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0:12 - 0:14Thanks very much.
-
0:14 - 0:17I'm not going to beat Gregory with his
saxophone for sure, but bear with me. -
0:17 - 0:21This might be - no, it won't be remotely
as interesting, as good or entertaining. -
0:22 - 0:24Is there a real you?
-
0:24 - 0:26This might seem to you
like a very odd question. -
0:26 - 0:29Because, you might ask,
-
0:29 - 0:31how do we find the real you,
-
0:31 - 0:33how do you know what the real you is?
-
0:33 - 0:34And so forth.
-
0:34 - 0:37But the idea
that there must be a real you, -
0:37 - 0:39surely that's obvious.
-
0:39 - 0:42If there's anything real in the world,
it's you. -
0:42 - 0:44Well, I'm not quite sure.
-
0:44 - 0:47At least we have to understand
a bit better what that means. -
0:47 - 0:50Now certainly, I think there are
lots of things in our culture around us -
0:50 - 0:52which sort of reinforce the idea
-
0:52 - 0:56that for each one of us,
we have a kind of a core, an essence. -
0:56 - 0:59There is something about what it means
to be you which defines you, -
0:59 - 1:02and it's kind of permanent and unchanging.
-
1:02 - 1:04The most kind of crude way
in which we have it, -
1:04 - 1:06are things like horoscopes.
-
1:06 - 1:08You know, people are very wedded
to these, actually. -
1:08 - 1:11People put them on their Facebook profile
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1:11 - 1:12as though they are meaningul,
-
1:12 - 1:14you even know
your Chinese horoscope as well. -
1:14 - 1:17There are also more scientific
versions of this, -
1:17 - 1:20all sorts of ways of profiling
personality type, -
1:20 - 1:23such as the Myers-Briggs tests,
for example. -
1:23 - 1:24I don't know if you've done those.
-
1:24 - 1:26A lot of companies
use these for recruitment. -
1:26 - 1:29You answer a lot of questions,
-
1:29 - 1:33and this is supposed to reveal
something about your core personality. -
1:33 - 1:36And of course, the popular fascination
with this is enormous. -
1:36 - 1:38In magazines like this, you'll see,
-
1:38 - 1:42in the bottom left corner,
they'll advertise in virtually every issue -
1:42 - 1:44some kind of personality thing.
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1:44 - 1:46And if you pick up one of those magazines,
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1:46 - 1:47it's hard to resist, isn't it?
-
1:47 - 1:50Doing the test to find
what is your learning style, -
1:50 - 1:53what is your loving style,
or what is your working style? -
1:53 - 1:55Are you this kind of person or that?
-
1:55 - 1:58So I think that we have
a common-sense idea -
1:58 - 2:02that there is a kind of core
or essence of ourselves -
2:02 - 2:03to be discovered.
-
2:03 - 2:06And that this is kind of a permanent truth
about ourselves, -
2:06 - 2:09something that's the same throughout life.
-
2:09 - 2:12Well, that's the idea I want to challenge.
-
2:12 - 2:15And I have to say now,
I'll say it a bit later, -
2:15 - 2:18but I'm not challenging this
just because I'm weird, -
2:18 - 2:21the challenge actually has a very,
very long and distinguished history. -
2:21 - 2:23Here's the common-sense idea.
-
2:23 - 2:24There is you.
-
2:24 - 2:28You are the individuals you are,
and you have this kind of core. -
2:28 - 2:32Now in your life, what happens
is that you, of course, -
2:32 - 2:35accumulate different experiences
and so forth. -
2:35 - 2:37So you have memories,
-
2:37 - 2:39and these memories
help to create what you are. -
2:39 - 2:42You have desires, maybe for a cookie,
-
2:42 - 2:44maybe for something
that we don't want to talk about -
2:44 - 2:46at 11 o'clock in the morning in a school.
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2:46 - 2:48You will have beliefs.
-
2:48 - 2:50This is a number plate
from someone in America. -
2:50 - 2:53I don't know whether this number plate,
which says "messiah 1," -
2:53 - 2:56indicates that the driver
believes in the messiah, -
2:56 - 2:58or that they are the messiah.
-
2:58 - 3:01Either way,
they have beliefs about messiahs. -
3:01 - 3:02We have knowledge.
-
3:02 - 3:04We have sensations
and experiences as well. -
3:04 - 3:07It's not just intellectual things.
-
3:07 - 3:09So this is kind of the common-sense model,
I think, -
3:09 - 3:11of what a person is.
-
3:11 - 3:16There is a person who has all the things
that make up our life experiences. -
3:16 - 3:19But the suggestion
I want to put to you today -
3:19 - 3:22is that there's something
fundamentally wrong with this model. -
3:22 - 3:25And I can show you what's wrong
with one click. -
3:25 - 3:31Which is there isn't actually a "you"
at the heart of all these experiences. -
3:32 - 3:34Strange thought?
Well, maybe not. -
3:34 - 3:35What is there, then?
-
3:35 - 3:38Well, clearly there are memories,
desires, intentions, sensations, -
3:38 - 3:40and so forth.
-
3:40 - 3:42But what happens is
these things exist, -
3:42 - 3:45and they're kind of all integrated,
-
3:45 - 3:48they're overlapped, they're connected
in various different ways. -
3:48 - 3:51They're connecting partly,
and perhaps even mainly, -
3:51 - 3:54because they all belong
to one body and one brain. -
3:54 - 3:57But there's also a narrative,
a story we tell about ourselves, -
3:57 - 4:00the experiences we have
when we remember past things. -
4:00 - 4:03We do things because of other things.
-
4:03 - 4:06So what we desire is partly
a result of what we believe, -
4:06 - 4:10and what we remember is also
informing us what we know. -
4:10 - 4:12And so really, there are all these things,
-
4:12 - 4:15like beliefs, desires,
sensations, experiences, -
4:15 - 4:18they're all related to each other,
-
4:18 - 4:20and that just is you.
-
4:22 - 4:26In some ways, it's a small difference
from the common-sense understanding. -
4:26 - 4:28In some ways, it's a massive one.
-
4:28 - 4:30It's the shift between
thinking of yourself -
4:30 - 4:34as a thing which has
all the experiences of life, -
4:34 - 4:37and thinking of yourself
as simply that collection -
4:37 - 4:39of all experiences in life.
-
4:39 - 4:41You are the sum of your parts.
-
4:41 - 4:44Now those parts are also physical parts,
of course, -
4:44 - 4:46brains, bodies and legs and things,
-
4:46 - 4:48but they aren't so important, actually.
-
4:48 - 4:50If you have a heart transplant,
you're still the same person. -
4:50 - 4:53If you have a memory transplant,
are you the same person? -
4:53 - 4:56If you have a belief transplant,
would you be the same person? -
4:56 - 5:01Now this idea, that what we are,
the way to understand ourselves, -
5:01 - 5:05is as not of some permanent being,
which has experiences, -
5:05 - 5:08but is kind of a collection
of experiences, -
5:08 - 5:11might strike you as kind of weird.
-
5:11 - 5:13But actually,
I don't think it should be weird. -
5:13 - 5:15In a way, it's common sense.
-
5:15 - 5:18Because I just invite you to think about,
by comparison, -
5:18 - 5:22think about pretty much anything else
in the universe, -
5:22 - 5:25maybe apart from the very
most fundamental forces or powers. -
5:26 - 5:28Let's take something like water.
-
5:28 - 5:30Now my science isn't very good.
-
5:30 - 5:33We might say something
like water has two parts hydrogen -
5:33 - 5:35and one parts oxygen, right?
-
5:35 - 5:37We all know that.
-
5:37 - 5:40I hope no one in this room
thinks that what that means -
5:40 - 5:44is there is a thing called water,
and attached to it -
5:44 - 5:47are hydrogen and oxygen atoms,
-
5:47 - 5:48and that's what water is.
-
5:48 - 5:50Of course we don't.
-
5:50 - 5:53We understand, very easily,
very straightforwardly, -
5:53 - 5:54that water is nothing more
-
5:54 - 5:59than the hydrogen and oxygen molecules
suitably arranged. -
5:59 - 6:02Everything else in the universe
is the same. -
6:02 - 6:04There's no mystery about my watch,
for example. -
6:05 - 6:08We say the watch has a face, and hands,
-
6:08 - 6:10and a mechanism and a battery,
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6:10 - 6:11But what we really mean is,
-
6:11 - 6:14we don't think there is a thing
called the watch -
6:14 - 6:15to which we then attach all these bits.
-
6:15 - 6:19We understand very clearly
that you get the parts of the watch, -
6:19 - 6:21you put them together,
and you create a watch. -
6:21 - 6:24Now if everything else
in the universe is like this, -
6:24 - 6:26why are we different?
-
6:26 - 6:27Why think of ourselves
-
6:27 - 6:31as somehow not just being
a collection of all our parts, -
6:31 - 6:36but somehow being a separate,
permanent entity which has those parts? -
6:36 - 6:39Now this view is not particularly new,
actually. -
6:39 - 6:41It has quite a long lineage.
-
6:41 - 6:42You find it in Buddhism,
-
6:42 - 6:45you find it in 17th,
18th-century philosophy -
6:45 - 6:49going through to the current day,
people like Locke and Hume. -
6:49 - 6:51But interestingly, it's also a view
-
6:51 - 6:54increasingly being heard
reinforced by neuroscience. -
6:55 - 6:58This is Paul Broks,
he's a clinical neuropsychologist, -
6:58 - 7:00and he says this:
-
7:00 - 7:02"We have a deep intuition
that there is a core, -
7:02 - 7:05an essence there,
and it's hard to shake off, -
7:05 - 7:08probably impossible to shake off,
I suspect. -
7:08 - 7:11But it's true that neuroscience shows
that there is no centre in the brain -
7:11 - 7:14where things do all come together."
-
7:14 - 7:16So when you look at the brain,
-
7:16 - 7:20and you look at how the brain
makes possible a sense of self, -
7:20 - 7:24you find that there isn't
a central control spot in the brain. -
7:24 - 7:27There is no kind of center
where everything happens. -
7:27 - 7:30There are lots of different processes
in the brain, -
7:30 - 7:33all of which operate, in a way,
quite independently. -
7:33 - 7:36But it's because of the way
that they relate -
7:36 - 7:38that we get this sense of self.
-
7:38 - 7:42The term I use in the book,
I call it the ego trick. -
7:43 - 7:46It's like a mechanical trick.
-
7:47 - 7:49It's not that we don't exist,
-
7:49 - 7:52it's just that the trick is
to make us feel that inside of us -
7:52 - 7:56is something more unified
than is really there. -
7:56 - 7:59Now you might think
this is a worrying idea. -
7:59 - 8:01You might think that if it's true,
-
8:01 - 8:05that for each one of us
there is no abiding core of self, -
8:05 - 8:07no permanent essence,
-
8:07 - 8:11does that mean that really,
the self is an illusion? -
8:11 - 8:13Does it mean that we really don't exist?
-
8:13 - 8:15There is no real you.
-
8:15 - 8:19Well, a lot of people actually
do use this talk of illusion and so forth. -
8:19 - 8:23These are three psychologists,
Thomas Metzinger, Bruce Hood, -
8:23 - 8:25Susan Blackmore,
-
8:25 - 8:28a lot of these people
do talk the language of illusion, -
8:28 - 8:30the self is an illusion, it's a fiction.
-
8:30 - 8:33But I don't think this is
a very helpful way of looking at it. -
8:33 - 8:34Go back to the watch.
-
8:34 - 8:38The watch isn't an illusion,
because there is nothing to the watch -
8:38 - 8:40other than a collection of its parts.
-
8:40 - 8:43In the same way,
we're not illusions either. -
8:43 - 8:48The fact that we are, in some ways,
just this very, very complex collection, -
8:48 - 8:49ordered collection of things,
-
8:49 - 8:51does not mean we're not real.
-
8:51 - 8:54I can give you a very
sort of rough metaphor for this. -
8:54 - 8:57Let's take something like a waterfall.
-
8:57 - 8:59These are the Iguazu Falls, in Argentina.
-
9:01 - 9:03Now if you take something like this,
-
9:03 - 9:05you can appreciate the fact
that in lots of ways, -
9:05 - 9:08there's nothing permanent about this.
-
9:08 - 9:09For one thing, it's always changing.
-
9:09 - 9:12The waters are always
carving new channels. -
9:12 - 9:14with changes in tides and the weather,
-
9:14 - 9:18some things dry up,
new things are created. -
9:19 - 9:22Of course the water
that flows through the waterfall -
9:22 - 9:25is different at every single instance.
-
9:25 - 9:28But it doesn't mean
that the Iguazu Falls are an illusion. -
9:28 - 9:30It doesn't mean it's not real.
-
9:30 - 9:33What it means is
we have to understand what it is -
9:33 - 9:35as something which has a history,
-
9:35 - 9:37has certain things that keep it together,
-
9:37 - 9:41but it's a process, it's fluid,
it's forever changing. -
9:41 - 9:44Now that, I think, is a model
for understanding ourselves, -
9:44 - 9:46and I think it's a liberating model.
-
9:46 - 9:49Because if you think that you have
this fixed, permanent essence, -
9:49 - 9:52which is always the same,
throughout your life, no matter what, -
9:52 - 9:54in a sense you're kind of trapped.
-
9:54 - 9:57You're born with an essence,
-
9:57 - 10:00that's what you are until you die,
-
10:00 - 10:03if you believe in an afterlife,
maybe you continue. -
10:03 - 10:05But if you think of yourself
as being, in a way, -
10:05 - 10:09not a thing as such,
but a kind of a process, -
10:09 - 10:11something that is changing,
-
10:11 - 10:13then I think that's quite liberating.
-
10:13 - 10:15Because unlike the the waterfalls,
-
10:15 - 10:18we actually have the capacity to channel
-
10:18 - 10:22the direction of our development
for ourselves to a certain degree. -
10:22 - 10:24Now we've got to be careful here, right?
-
10:24 - 10:27If you watch the X-Factor too much,
you might buy into this idea -
10:27 - 10:30that we can all be whatever we want to be.
-
10:30 - 10:31That's not true.
-
10:31 - 10:34I've heard some fantastic musicians
this morning, -
10:34 - 10:37and I am very confident
that I could in no way be as good as them. -
10:37 - 10:39I could practice hard and maybe be good,
-
10:39 - 10:42but I don't have
that really natural ability. -
10:42 - 10:45There are limits to what we can achieve.
-
10:45 - 10:47There are limits to
what we can make of ourselves. -
10:47 - 10:50But nevertheless, we do have this capacity
-
10:50 - 10:54to, in a sense, shape ourselves.
-
10:54 - 10:56The true self, as it were then,
-
10:56 - 11:00is not something that is just there
for you to discover, -
11:00 - 11:04you don't sort of look into your soul
and find your true self. -
11:04 - 11:06What you are partly doing, at least,
-
11:06 - 11:08is actually creating your true self.
-
11:08 - 11:10And this, I think, is very,
very significant, -
11:10 - 11:13particularly
at this stage of life you're at. -
11:13 - 11:14You'll be aware of the fact
-
11:14 - 11:16how much of you changed over recent years.
-
11:16 - 11:19If you have any videos of yourself,
three or four years ago, -
11:19 - 11:23you probably feel embarrassed
because you don't recognize yourself. -
11:23 - 11:26So I want to get that message over,
that what we need to do -
11:26 - 11:29is think about ourselves as things
that we can shape, -
11:29 - 11:30and channel and change.
-
11:30 - 11:31This is the Buddha, again:
-
11:31 - 11:33"Well-makers lead the water,
-
11:33 - 11:35fletchers bend the arrow,
-
11:35 - 11:37carpenters bend a log of wood,
-
11:37 - 11:40wise people fashion themselves."
-
11:41 - 11:43And that's the idea
I want to leave you with, -
11:43 - 11:49that your true self is not something
that you will have to go searching for, -
11:49 - 11:52as a mystery, and maybe never ever find.
-
11:52 - 11:54To the extent you have a true self,
-
11:54 - 11:57it's something that you in part discover,
-
11:57 - 11:59but in part create.
-
11:59 - 12:03and that, I think,
is a liberating and exciting prospect. -
12:04 - 12:06Thank you very much.
-
12:06 - 12:08(Applause)
- Title:
- Is there a real you? | Julian Baggini | TEDxYouth@Manchester
- Description:
-
What makes you, you? Is it how you think of yourself, how others think of you, or something else entirely? In this talk, Julian Baggini draws from philosophy and neuroscience to give a surprising answer.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 12:14
TED Translators admin edited English subtitles for Is there a real you? | Julian Baggini | TEDxYouth@Manchester | ||
TED Translators admin commented on English subtitles for Is there a real you? | Julian Baggini | TEDxYouth@Manchester | ||
TED Translators admin edited English subtitles for Is there a real you? | Julian Baggini | TEDxYouth@Manchester | ||
Retired user commented on English subtitles for Is there a real you? | Julian Baggini | TEDxYouth@Manchester | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for Is there a real you? | Julian Baggini | TEDxYouth@Manchester | ||
TED Translators admin edited English subtitles for Is there a real you? | Julian Baggini | TEDxYouth@Manchester | ||
TED Translators admin edited English subtitles for Is there a real you? | Julian Baggini | TEDxYouth@Manchester | ||
TED Translators admin edited English subtitles for Is there a real you? | Julian Baggini | TEDxYouth@Manchester |
Retired user
I think in the opening line he is saying "I'm not going to 'beat' [name] with his saxophone". The "beat" was marked as [unclear] in the transcript.
TED Translators admin
Thanks, Johanna, it's fixed. And we found the name is Gregory.