All things Philosophical. discussion

You'd be hard pressed to find someone without some sort of interest in this so we really must discuss it in this group.

Are we really the sum of our experience or is that only one part of us?

If we take Sartre for example, "We have to choose, to live or to recollect." Since this recollection would be the examination of our experiences as remembered then there must have been a time when the person recollecting was the person living. During the living stage there is something that is having the experiences that it will then later judge. Since it is the same person who has lived and is then recollecting there must be something constant which in some sense goes beyond both. Obviously his comment was meant to be about how living would not be happening consciously if we constantly recollected but it is interesting to not the implied distinction.

Mark, can I ask where this quote comes from. It's very relevant to issues I discussed in my review of "A Visit from the Goon Squad", only a few days ago.

I did that from memory so it might not be exact, however, it is from Nausea.

Do you think this is what you were thinking of:

"A man is always a storyteller; he tries to see his life as if he were telling it. But one has to choose: to live or to tell"
Jean Paul Sartre, 1905-1980, French philosopher and writer, Nausea

Ian wrote: "Do you think this is what you were thinking of:

"A man is always a storyteller; he tries to see his life as if he were telling it. But one has to choose: to live or to tell"
Jean Paul Sartre, 190..."
It's probably a different translation but yes I think that was it alright.

"To be or not to be - that is the question."
William Shakespeare.

The continuity of the narrative of a life is the precondition for its apparent unity!