6670b58
The Self as a Path-Dependent Process
This paper proposes a process account of selfhood. A self is not a static object, an internal observer, a personality profile, a collection of memories, or a momentary representation of an organism. It is a temporally persistent and path-dependent organization of memory, motivation, interpretation, and action that recursively modifies the conditions of its own future development. On this account, events do not merely add information to a system. They are interpreted relative to the system’s accumulated history, active valuations, existing expectations, and model of itself as a continuing subject. Those interpretations influence action, and the consequences of action reorganize the system that will interpret subsequent events.