First Person Plural
I believe that I am made up of multitudes- a plural. “Some scholars argue that although the brain might contain neural subsystems or modules, it also contains a part that constitutes a person, a self: the chief executive of all the subsystems”. Our body may be one, but the mind surely does take charge of our subsystems. The brain “gives rise to selves that last over time, plan for the future and so on”. With that being said, I believe that me as an individual am made up of multitude because “within each brain, different selves are continually popping in and out of existence.” We may refer to these “selves” as our subconscious or the angel and devil on our shoulders, but really, it’s our two minds battling with each other. “They fight for control- bargaining with, deceiving, and plotting against one another.” The effects of our mind battling shows when it comes time for me to make a tough decisions. I am constantly fighting between doing right and doing wrong and with whatever decision I make at the end of the day, I know that It was I who came up with that decision along with the two hemispheres of the brain in my head and with these two hemispheres comes different personalities. So even if people want to deny being “made of multitudes”, sadly we are because with the different hemispheres in one body come with different personalities.
I agree with your statement of being made up of multitudes. Looking at the article, Paul Bloom states, “… the brain consists of large parts (such as the hippocampus and the cortex) that are made up of small parts (such as “maps” in the visual cortex), which themselves are made up of smaller parts,” directly introducing the concepts of the different parts of the brain. As he later says, “… if you accept that our brains are a myriad of smaller components, you must reject such notions as character, praise, blame, and free will,” creating the assumption that being comprised of plurals is mutually exclusive to having a sense of self. Rather, these plurals are the characteristics that exist as the self. Bloom specifically mentions different parts of the brain have different functions, similar to when Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor mentioned the personalities of the left and right hemispheres of the brain. This provides the idea that the different characteristics of consciousness can be linked to specific parts of the brain. Additionally, Bloom presents the contrasting idea of long-term and short-term self. He describes the long-term self as, “one reason to favor the longer-term self is that it really is older and more experienced … the long-term self has more time to reflect.” He also creates a contrast by stating the long-term self binds the short-term self. Furthermore, this follows the definition of the left and right hemispheres of the brain by Dr. Taylor, cementing the my belief and agreement that the mind is comprised of multitudes.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you I think I am made up of multitudes, I am an individual but with different many different sides. In First Person Plural, Author Paul Bloom, explains to his audience that Personality changes according to the situation. For Example, “even the most thuggish teenager is not the same around his buddies as he is when having tea with Grandma” because it our attitude would be inappropriate for the situation. Then once around your buddies it Is ok to say curse words and make crude jokes because that’s the environment and you are still the same person just a different personality. We as humans adapt to our situation because if we didn’t then we would fail. Without being made of up multitudes we would not succeed due to the lack of adapting personalities. Bloom also says “We interact with ourselves thinking they are other people”, just think of that tiny voice in your head that we commonly call our consensus. Sometimes we disagree with it and then it becomes a whole different person and now were fighting it. However, were in the same body but now you have different personalities going on within the same person. This can be confusing but it really is quite simple. We have multitudes and we are plural.
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