My Philosophical Position [04/10] Selfhood and personal identity

Philosophics — Philosophical and Political Ramblings · Jul 13, 2026 · 5m

Philosopher Bry Willis discusses metaphysics and his position of Philosophy of self and episodic inexicalism.

The first-person “I” is an indexical compression. It marks the presently organised locus of perspective, salience, memory-access, and action. It is indispensable, but indispensability does not establish an inner owner to which the index refers.

The diachronic self is a broader compression: a narrative, biological, documentary, interpersonal, and institutional device for tracking selected continuities across time. Memory contributes to this, but memory is lossy, reconstructive, and…