THE SELF - by Avi Sion

THE SELF

A Thematic Compilation

Avi Sion,  Ph. D.

First Published, 2008.

Abstract

The Self is an inquiry into the concepts of self, soul, person, ego, consciousness, psyche and mind – ranging over phenomenology, logic, epistemology, ontology, psychology, spirituality, meditation, ethics and metaphysics.

This book is a thematic compilation drawn from past works by the author over a period of eighteen years.

Buy it or read it online

All of Avi Sion’s published books can be purchased at Amazon.com (in paperback or kindle/.mobi form), and at Lulu.com (in hardcover, paperback or e-book/.epub form), as well as other online stores.

They can also be read online free of charge, chapter by chapter, at www.TheLogician.net and, in '3D flipbook' format, at www.AviSionBooks.com, as well as in Google Books and other Internet locations. They are also available in many university and public libraries.

Contents

Chapter One - Consciousness and the Mind

Drawn from Future Logic (1990), chapter 61.

1.                         Consciousness is a Relation

2.                         Kinds of Consciousness

3.                         The Mind

4.                         Popular Psychology

Chapter Two

Drawn from Buddhist Illogic (2002), chapter 11 & chapter 12.

1.                         Self or Soul.

2.                         Self-Knowledge.

Chapter Three

Drawn from Phenomenology (2003), chapter 1 (section 3) & chapter 5 (sections 1-3, 5-6).

1.                         To Be Or Not To Be

2.                         The Self

3.                         Factors of the “Self”

4.                         Identification-With

5.                         Fallacious Criticisms of Selfhood

6.                         What “Emptiness” Might Be

Chapter Four - The Workings of Volition

Drawn from Volition and Allied Causal Concepts (2004), chapter 7.

1.                         Cultural Context and Epistemological Considerations

2.                         Theoretical Context

3.                         Stages in the Process of Volition

4.                         The Scope of Freewill

Chapter Five

Drawn from Volition and Allied Causal Concepts (2004), chapter 11 (section 3) & chapter 16.

1.                         The Ego Abhors a Vacuum

2.                         Ungluing the Mind

3.                         Abstract vs. Concrete Self

4.                         Sundry Reflections on the Soul and God

Chapter Six

Drawn from Meditations (2006), chapter 8 & chapter 9.

1.                         The Individual Self in Monism

2.                         The Impression of Self

Chapter Seven

Drawn from Meditations (2006), chapter 11, chapter 12 & chapter 13.

1.                         Not an Essence, but an Entity

2.                         Distinguishing the Ego

3.                         Dismissing the Ego

Chapter Eight

Drawn from Logical and Spiritual Reflections (2008), Hume’s Problems with Induction, chapter 5 & chapter 11; In Defense of Aristotle’s Laws of Thought, chapter 16.

1.                         The Self or Soul

2.                         Descartes’ Mind-Body Dichotomy

3.                         Buddhist Denial of the Soul

Chapter Nine

Drawn from Logical and Spiritual Reflections (2008), More Meditations, chapter 3, chapter 4, chapter 7, chapter 10 & chapter 11; Zen Judaism, chapter 8 (part).

1.                         Self-Awareness

2.                         Meditation on the Self

3.                         Behold the Mind

4.                         The Buddhist No-Soul Theory

5.                         Self and Enlightenment

References

Figures

1.         Material, mental and spiritual domains

2.         Three types of continuity

3.         Mapping the process of volition

4.         How momentary subjects and objects give rise to abstractions