Insight, Thinking, and the Nature of Self: On the Methods of Philosophy and what "I" Refers to

Abstract

My thesis is on the methods of philosophy and the nature of the self. I look at both Eastern and Western philosophy to show the core methods of philosophy within each branch and how they apply their philosophical methods to understand the nature of the self. When methods of thinking are used to understand the nature of the self, which is the typical methodology in Western philosophy, we conclude, falsely, that the self is a thinking thing – the thinker. When methods of insight/refined attention are used, which is the typical methodology in Eastern philosophy, we directly know, more correctly, that the self is _____, which can be linguistically labelled as Being, the Self, not-self, emptiness, awareness, pure consciousness, etc., which is ineffable. My main argument is that philosophy today should include methods of thinking and insight to understand the nature of self and that philosophers should train attention through meditation.