Given how little control we have of our wandering minds, how can we cultivate real mental autonomy?

An excellent essay on the wandering mind and our sense of self. Changed how I view the “self” when I originally read it years ago, and I was just randomly reminded of it and figured I’d share it with the yeehive

  • jmp242
    3·
    1 year ago

    Yet another take on the lack of a self.

    Is it ever possible to distinguish mental actions, which we can direct and select, from the more general category of mental events, which simply happen to us? In what sense are we ever genuinely mental agents, capable of acting freely, as opposed to being buffeted by forces beyond our control?

    I actually think I might differ with the author slightly here because i think the answer is we never are “genuine mental agents”.

    • interolivary@beehaw.orgOP
      2·
      1 year ago

      Yeah I sort of lean in that direction as well, considering that our conscious experience is a post hoc fiction