Dream, Death, and the Self"Might this be a dream?" In this book, distinguished philosopher J. J. Valberg approaches the familiar question about dream and reality by seeking to identify its subject matter: what is it that would be the dream if "this" were a dream? It turns out to be a subject matter that contains the whole of the world, space, and time but which, like consciousness for Sartre, is nothing "in itself." This subject matter, the "personal horizon," lies at the heart of the main topics--the first person, the self, and the self in time--explored at length in the book. |
Contents
THE MEANING OF THE DREAM HYPOTHESIS | 27 |
Identity and the First Person | 53 |
The Confusion of Standpoint | 71 |
The Subject Matter of the Dream Hypothesis | 84 |
DREAM SKEPTICISM | 101 |
Responding to Dream Skepticism | 119 |
THE MEANING OF DEATH | 153 |
The Subject Matter and Mineness of My Death | 168 |
THE POSITIONAL CONCEPTION OF THE SELF | 264 |
The Phenomenology of the Subject Position | 286 |
THE FIRST PERSON | 321 |
What Makes FirstPerson Reference First Personal? | 342 |
TIME AND THE SELF | 359 |
The Problem of Personal Identity | 370 |
Time and the Horizon | 394 |
My Past | 408 |
DEATH AND SOLIPSISM | 185 |
Death and the Truth of Solipsism | 201 |
The Awfulness and Incomprehensibility of Death | 215 |
POSSIBILITY AND THE SELF | 237 |
Metaphysical Possibility and the Self | 255 |
My Future | 432 |
The Puzzle of Division | 450 |
The Extraphilosophical Puzzles | 474 |
487 | |