The Ship of Theseus: The Illusion of the Self

 A Srinivas Rao                                                                                                             June 2013

This article was written as a dedication to Sri Ramana Maharshi and was published by Sri Ramanasramam in their quarterly Mountain Path April Jun 2014.           

                                                                                   

“Since every other thought can occur only after the rise of the ‘I’-thought and since the mind is nothing but a bundle of thoughts, it is only through the enquiry ‘Who am I?’ that the mind subsides.”- Sri Ramana Maharshi  “Who Am I”[i]

Contemporary studies on the nature of the self, find significant convergence about the illusory nature of the self, yet surprisingly they are a divided house on the nature of consciousness. Despite the materialist underpinnings of these studies often clubbed under the rubric of ‘consciousness studies’ that are cross disciplinary and span the neurosciences, psychology and  philosophy, they offer fresh insights into the ancient question ‘Who am I?’.  Please note that the term ‘self’ as used in the article refers solely to the individual ego and not the transcendent ‘ground of being’. It would be appropriate if the term ego is used as synonymous for self in this article.

 ‘No man ever steps into the same river twice’ declared the Greek philosopher Heraclitus (c 535- c 475 BCE), indicating, like the Buddha, the constant nature of change.  Plutarch (c 46-c 120 CE), another Greek, in response to this formulated a paradox called ‘The Ship of Theseus’. 

“The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned from Crete had thirty oars, and was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of Demetrius Phalereus, for they took away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their place...”.Plutarch Theseus[ii]

Plutarch’s question, which divides philosophers up to this day is whether a ship that is totally reconstructed is still the same ship.  Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), the British philosopher, added his own twist to the paradox of Theseus. What would happen if the original planks were gathered up after they were replaced and a second ship constructed?

Yuganta: End of an Epoch

A Srinivas Rao 

23rd August 2014

Dr Manesh L Shrikant

With a cockiness that only an unthinking youth could state, i said that the verse of the chariot analogy was from the Kathopanishad and not the Gita and that the Gita had borrowed it from there, as he had asserted. I wondered if that answer would have disqualified me at the admissions interview at an ungenial interest in obscure subjects to gain attention at my dimunitive frame. But then neither could i shake off a fascination with the questioner, a middle aged gentleman elegantly dressed and urbane despite the unmistakable Gujarati accent, rumored to be an industry tycoon with a strange interest in academics with a string of venerable degrees like trophies that crowned his thinning pate. I had heard some horror tales of his qualifications and his decimation of candidates in the anteroom as i waited for my turn at the admissions interview. Ever since then and for a very long time i shadowed his work and was charmed by this fascinating man consciously or unconsciously. I think I obsessively sought his approval which impelled me towards a standard of work and thought that he would regard as good. As his student i imagined that his classes were the most inspiring ones, that were remarkably insightful, creative, pointed, and unusual and indeed changed the course of my life. It left us breathless long after his lecture ruminating on the scattered lessons we gleaned from the rich learning. He instilled in us a confidence to question the thought of a remarkable array of thinkers, Gunnar Myrdal, Naisbitt, Porter, Mao Tse Tung, Roosevelt, Chester Barnard, Herbert Simon, Drucker (his favourite though our most dry thinker) apart from engaging case discussions on administrative issues which he thought as at the heart of management. His assignments were to me the most precious as  they were unusual and i sought his attention in strange ways. He wore his genius lightly though he never was quite recognised for his abilities in public. Few peers if any had the same combination of alacrity of intellect and managerial experience that he had that balanced the many softer aspects of administrative judgement. It is a pity that he was overlooked so often by so many. Having seen many such leaders of business schools some of who have been honoured by the Padma awards by the President and other such public recognition, he remains a towering giant amongst a gaggle of dwarves, known to a few and cherished by them all.