The Minutiae
It is in the minutiae that we find the flow of history.
It is in the minutiae that we find the flow of history.
May 2024, The Self: Volume 1
To some, the question, ‘what makes you, you?’ might seem frivolous, or pseudo-intellectual. A question more suited for an interview or a group of stoned college kids than a serious pursuit. While there is a superficial element to the question, that does not negate its importance. Knowing who you are and understanding what makes you yourself is critical to making life decisions, forming an identity, and maintaining general wellbeing. In the same way, self knowledge is important to the individual, it is important to the greater society.
Our conception of the self plays a major role in constructing our understanding of what a ‘good life’ is. How we judge the ‘good life’ determines our values and affects how we organize our societies. When we see the self as inherent or true and wrap it in identities such as nationality, gender, religion, and so on, we end up seeing the world through these identity paradigms. What is “good” becomes what is good for my country, my team, my family. The self and self experience becomes the measuring stick for how we judge everything.
The philosopher John Rawls thought the only way to come to a fair conception of justice was to strip away all of these identities. He proposed looking at policies, not as yourself but as a person ignorant of who they are. He came up with ‘The Veil of Ignorance’ thought experiment as a way to practice stepping out of your identity. Try it, step into The Veil of Ignorance. You no longer know who you are, you do not know where you are from, what you do, your income or family status, you do not know your gender or race. You know nothing about yourself. However you retain your knowledge of the world. Now consider the proposal of providing a Universal Basic Income (UBI).
Going by statistics, you are likely to be a middle to low income single young adult with some level of debt and are living in a place affected by inflation. Of course, you might be in the top one percent. You might be well educated, have job security, and live in a democratic country, but the odds are not in your favor. Check out average incomes and lifestyles around the world or National Geographic’s composite of the most typical person.
From your position of self-ignorance, what do you think? Is UBI a good idea or not? Is it fair or not? If you are taking this seriously and feel like you need to know more about UBI to make a decision, read this. For a summary of studies on UBI outcomes look at this.
Were you able to step out of your identities? Probably not. This is one of the main criticisms against Rawls. We cannot just dismiss who we are, and even if we could, would we be able to judge what is fair without having any self knowledge? Rawls believes that through reason alone we can arrive at just policies. Others argue that without knowing who we are, we would not be able to assign meaning or value to anything. Our identities are the focal point on which we rest our understanding of everything else. Whether you agree with Rawls or not, his thought experiment highlights the importance of our identities in how we see the world.
While the theory that the concept of self plays an important role in our understanding of justice is reason enough to make the topic relevant, it is not the only one. There is a legitimate possibility that AI will reach the level of Artificial General Intelligence and gain consciousness in the process. If it does, we are going to need to know what, if anything, differentiates us from conscious AI. Understanding the factors that shape our individual selves could help us recognize and draw boundaries around our relationships with artificial selves. This idea is further explored in this article.