What is the "self? [Part One]
It's what we make of it...
(The image is another sculpture—from horseshoes—by Penny Hardy)
I argued (May 2025) that a permanent or fixed “soul” does not exist; similarly, though for a different reason, a “fixed” or permanent “self” does not exist
That is, humans are not born with a “self;” we each of us create a self during our first couple of decades of life: each person’s “self” is comprised of a selection from the form of life we experience early & through childhood
[“Childhood,” incidentally, did not always exist either…]
Each human child is born of a mother, but the circumstances of one’s early life vary quite substantially by culture & practice [Cf. Babies, a 2010 film by Thos. Balmes]
Beginning in the 19th c. western European—incl. American—life was changed by the invention, during the “Industrial revolution,” of the “job"
“Work” very early became a feature of human existence, but “jobs” only came into being with the industrialization of work: the division of work—especially specializaton—introduced narrow forms of work—jobs—which together produced an outcome: a product (in all its many forms)
In this form of life each person not only “had a job” but also typically “went to work”
This change resulted in the formation of a “couple” who “had children:”thus the “nuclear family”—parents + their children—emerged
Now the formation of the self would take place within that family
As one grows up within the small circle this “nuclear” pair provide—together with any siblings—one learns one’s place
These two experiences—“growing up” & “taking one’s place”—form the “kernel” of the self I will go on to create
Thus “birth order”—if one has siblings—becomes a formative factor as well
In American life, schooling—occupying the better part of one’s first 20yrs—is at least as significant in the process of forming one’s self
My general point is that in the course of these 20yrs I select, “internalize,” and value these experiences by attaching them to my self
[TO BE CONTINUED]