A Map of Selves: Beyond Philosophy of Mind

Abstract

In many respects, N.M.L. Nathan's latest book feels timeless. Its brevity and pithiness especially remind one of Descartes’ Meditations; it even has similar overarching concerns and conclusions. Thus, Chapter 1 offers not only an analysis of the self, but also defends its introspective powers, its capacity for freewill, and its immateriality. Chapter 2 diverges somewhat from Cartesian themes; it rebuts two arguments for ‘ulterior selves’, that is, for the view that material objects are composed of selves (a view that Nathan associates with panpsychism). But Chapters 3 and 4 return to distinctly Cartesian issues, offering a cosmological argument for the existence of (something like) a god, and explaining how the account of selves bears on the possibility of post-mortem existence. Naturally, Nathan is not simply repeating Descartes or his scholastic influences. Written after the ‘metaphysical turn’ (instituted by David Lewis, David Armstrong, etc.), Nathan's book can be seen instead as a significant, 21st-century ‘update’ to a Cartesian-scholastic view.