Monday, January 21, 2008

Susan Blackmore, psychologist, thinks she doesn't exist but can't prove it


The Edge Foundation poses one question to elite scientists from around the world - this year's questions was "what do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?" The responses were amazing. Susan Blackmore, Psychologist, said it is possible to live happily and morally without believing in free will. She gives an example of buddhists who throw out the illusion of an inner self through meditation. When they throw out their "self" they act in ways that we think of as moral or good. She says she keeps trying to give up the sense of an inner conscious self altogether, but she just keeps on seeming to exist. Then she says, "but though I cannot prove it, I think it is true that I don't." Meaning, that she thinks she does not exist, she just can't prove it. This blows me away - she thinks she doesn't exist, but can't prove it. I keep thinking about this.......wow.......

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