Who am I ? Part 1

I wrote about the concept of I some time ago. It was not complete. It’s time to revisit the subject. There has been a question (if i could call it that) that has been at the back of my mind for the last 2 score years or more. May be its not a question; its more a search for an answer to a question that cannot be asked aloud.

Humanity has always looked for this answer; and a very few have had the opportunity to know what the answer is .What or who am I ?  Like mentioned earlier I wrote about some time ago. It was incomplete. Let’s recap - You are defined by the actions taken, or then simpler you are define by your ancestors. Your name was given by your parents, your entire identity is defined by what others think. It is a measure of how you would react and what your particular tribe would do that is used as a definition of who you are.

Society is supposed to have a common ethical construct. This common constructs is useful to explain how someone should behave. When you look deeper into this you will realise that behaviour is an outcome to an external stimulus; the stimulus is defined by the vagaries of time, situation and location.  Essentially the idea is that you could define yourself by measuring the outcome to some stimuli. This is nuts  - existence cannot be defined by  the response one has to some external stimulus - one cannot be defined by the actions one takes or avoids. Also who you are cannot be defined by a scale that has no standard or a standard that is based on an relative scale.  

I have written about human nature and behaviour in the past - it is essentially a study of the reactions of a human to external stimuli.  Philosophy, physiology and psychiatry all deal with the action and the stimuli. They are a study of the why and how.; essentially a study of the outcome to stimulus. There is no way to get to the answer of ‘who am I” on the basis of studying the outcome of stimuli.  

At a physical level; its impossible to reach a conclusion of what one is. There have been different approaches and theories about what constitutes a person. My physical and biological construct; or its definition is not enough. Physics is yet to come to an conclusion on the smallest particle that makes up everything - string or energy or something else is yet unknown. The biological limitations of what one considers to be “I” could so easily be something else - there is no guarantee that the carbon based shell is what the entire universe has as an constant for some sentient being. 

Who am I ?; is difficult to answer directly. It is far easier to answer what one is not. 

To be continued 

C