Quote of the Week...from John Dewey

The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action.  

                                                                         --John Dewey

The above quote from educator/philosopher John Dewey, which I picked up watching one of my Music Choice TV channels, brings into question what actually constitutes our own sense of identity.  I'm sure the dude has written a lot to back up his above quote, and you're welcome to delve into his rationales...I have my own reactions...

Back on September 15th I reviewed Dr. Ski Chilton's book The ReWired Brain, in which he claimed that simply thinking physically changes the neural pathways within our own brains and and thus alters ourselves, and repeating the same thoughts reinforces those changes.  Thinking is as much of a choice as "doing", and as such fits Dewey's criteria of choice of action. And since we are constantly thinking and doing, this naturally constantly changes us. One of my favorite Star Trek; the Next Generation episodes, titled Tapestry, has Captain Picard lamenting his earlier rowdy years in Star Fleet and a specific incident in which he jumped into a fight that caused him to lose his heart (it was replaced, naturally).  His regret prompted the alien character Q to intervene and give him a chance to go back in time and change the fight's outcome...the result showed that both good and bad experiences interweave within us to form our own individual tapestries: you can't go back and take something out without unraveling it all.  So yes, our minds and bodies do change as do our perceptions of our own selves. Still, I believe that there is within me a continual, unchanged core "self" around which all of these changes take place as my personality and character develop through my experiences and thoughts.  For example, when I am dreaming much of that "tapestry", and well as my ability to discern reality and critically reason things out, is fast asleep.  Yet I'm still there within that unconscious state, a core of me that is, my continuous "self", along with other residual elements of my personality.  I am an big advocate for people trying to improve themselves, but my interpretation is that in doing so they are creating more knowledge, character, abilities, and stronger and healthier bodies as the most immediate environment around that core being...