creators_name: Dennett, Daniel C
editors_name: Kessel, F.
editors_name: Cole, P.
editors_name: Johnson, D.
type: bookchapter
datestamp: 1998-04-14
lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:53:47
metadata_visibility: show
title: The Self as a Center of Narrative Gravity
ispublished: pub
subjects: phil-logic
subjects: phil-mind
full_text_status: public
abstract: What is a self? I will try to answer this question by developing an analogy with something much simpler, something which is nowhere near as puzzling as a self, but has some properties in common with selves. What I have in mind is the center of gravity of an object. This is a well-behaved concept in Newtonian physics. But a center of gravity is not an atom or a subatomic particle or any other physical item in the world. It has no mass; it has no color; it has no physical properties at all, except for spatio-temporal location. It is a fine example of what Hans Reichenbach would call an abstractum. It is a purely abstract object. It is, if you like , a theorist's fiction. It is not one of the real things in the universe in addition to the atoms. But it is a fiction that has nicely defined, well delineated and well behaved role within physics.
date: 1992
date_type: published
publication: Self and Consciousness: Multiple Perspectives
publisher: Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
refereed: TRUE
citation:   Dennett, Daniel C  (1992) The Self as a Center of Narrative Gravity.  [Book Chapter]     
document_url: http://cogprints.org/266/1/selfctr.htm