[MURG] Defining the sense of self and personal identity

[Thomas Weber]

Hi there,
In this email I would like to start sharing my opinion
and perception what the mind is. To begin and to keep
it as brief as possible I only will try to make a few
points on which I intend to expand later.
The sense of self is really a sense of existing in the
context of our environment. We are a part of it and
without it our lives would have no meaning. Therefore
we have a reason to perceive that we like all other
creatures around us are the environment coming aware
of itself. With the environment we are one whole
system.
The sense of self arises from our unique set of
experiences. Once enough experience is accumulated in
our memories and we discover enough reliable patterns
we gain the ability to project our memories - past -
into the future. We now start using our imagination.
Here we can say that the mind is a logical process
taking place in the past, present and future.
We look around and see objects which have meaning to
us. We can call it current perception. The next part
of the process is data search and the object is
classified as known or as unknown. Next the mind asks
what do we do with it or about it. Whatever it is the
subsequent action is to take place in the future.
Therefore our unique sense of self is our sense of the
past stored in our memories, our biography, our sense
of origin. Wherever we are coming from at this point
we are here and now. This is taken care of by our
senses: vision, hearing, touch, smell, taste. From
both the present and the past we elaborate a plan for
the future. Our imagination takes care of that.
Imagination can be refered to as the mirror of memory.
To sum up it can be said there are three simple
components to the mind and sense of self: memory,
perception, imagination. Or if think in terms of the
environment coming aware of itself in time and space
the sense of self is made of the past, the present and
the future.

Now I will do some more thinking and try to expand on
the above some more to create a draft. Any guiding
criticism on your part is greatly appreciated.
Kind Regards,
Thomas Weber


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