The Further Adventures of Nobody

Abstract

We are attempting to map the stage in our passage out of Eden that consists in the development or discovery of self. To that end we must first establish what the self is, and we do that by looking at how we employ the word “I.” From observation, we learn that the thing we assume we speak of when we say or think “I” is a strange conglomerate. It is in part a person—a living biological entity of a certain genus and species—and in part a grammatical fiction. It should be emphasized that it is the I, and not the person, that is in part fictional; people—the social animals we see about us—are, in contrast, as real as it gets.

God creates the animals; man creates himself.

Lichtenberg