Losing Yourself: How to be a Person Without a Self
with Jay L. Garfield
Jay L. Garfield investigates one of the most pervasive and pernicious of illusions: the sense that we are selves. How do we come to see ourselves as selfless without falling into a nihilistic view that we don't exist at all, that we have no agency, or no responsibility? The answer is to come to see ourselves as persons. Over four sessions, Jay explores what it is to be a person, but to lack a self, and the understanding of human life and morality that this enables.
Readings
Excerpts from Jay L. Garfield's "Losing Ourselves: Learning to Live without a Self" (2022).
This content may not be reproduced or disseminated without formal permission of the publisher.
Recorded Sessions
Session 1
Session 2
Session 3
Session 4
About Jay L. Garfield
Jay L. Garfield is the Doris Silbert Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy, Logic and Buddhist Studies at Smith College. He chairs the Philosophy department and directs Smith’s logic and Buddhist studies programs as well as the Five College Tibetan Studies in India program. He is also visiting professor of Buddhist philosophy at Harvard Divinity School, professor of philosophy at Melbourne University, and adjunct professor of philosophy at the Central University of Tibetan Studies. Garfield’s most recent books are Knowing Illusion: Bringing a Classical Tibetan Debate into Contemporary Discourse (with The Yakherds, forthcoming 2020), What Can’t be Said: Paradox and Contradiction in East Asian Philosophy (with Yasuo Deguchi, Graham Priest and Robert Sharf, forthcoming 2020), and The Essential Jewel of Holy Practice: Patrul Rinpoche’s Instructions for Practice (with Emily McRae, 2017).
Thank you for your support!
If you find this resource helpful, please consider donating. Your gift will ensure the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies can continue to preserve and expand access to the liberating teachings of the Buddha. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for your practice and generosity.