WHO ARE YOU?

Or

Who am I?

What a stupid question. Often when we are asked the first question we reply without a moments hesitation. But, if you are asked the first question by a philosopher there is no reply that can really do the question justice. After although there is no-one better qualified to give an anwser than you, you do not know how much detail and what specifically the questioner wants to know.

What are they expecting you to say?

By contrast if you even ask yourself the second then you must be mad, by all accounts coming close to it, or in correspondance with a philosopher.

Perhaps I am the sum total of all my experiences. Then there is the problem that the cumulative effect of all these could never be calculated and the significance of any one event must surely change over time.

After all there is no doubt that Marcel Proust before he tasted his Madelin is the same Marcel Proust as afterwards, and even that he is the same as the young boy who used to eat his cakes this way. Yet undeniably he has changed. Or what about a stroke victim?

And if these examples are not clear enough go out and get blindingly drunk.

I could go on, in fact I will, but not here...

Or even here...