CHAPTER 3: HUMAN NATURE #4a: Think to yourself: What is my "self"? Is there something about the self? I think my own “self” is what defines me and what makes me different from everybody else, we might have equal similarities but myself makes me have a different and unique type of DNA than anybody else in the world. The self means a person's essential being that distinguishes them from others, esp. considered as the object of introspection or reflexive action. Which is enduring and transcendent? Is there a distinct essence which is separable from other selves & other things? The enduring self is asking you or others, is there something about oneself that is everlasting that never changes? Is there something that remains constant throughout one's lifetime? The transcendent self is the basic ground concept from the word's literal meaning (from Latin), of climbing or going beyond. There is, however, the difference that humans engage in delayed satisfaction with the resulting midlife crisis of “what was it all for? It’s very status as final, as that for the sake of which other things are done. This points up that Aristotle's notion of happiness is different from ours 1. What led Macrina of Cappadocia to conclude that the pathe are not part of the soul’s essence? What gender is the pure soul? The pathe is not part of it & it's genderless. 2. Who is Proteus? How does the “Protean Self” respond to discontinuities in life and the loss of unitive meaning? Does the idea of having many selves, frighten you?
Proteus is a Greek god of the sea who is capable of changing his form at will. The god would only tell the future to someone who was able to capture and hold him, and his shape-shifting abilities could make this quite a challenge. It does scare me in a way to think that I could have many selves, but then again I think it would be a really cool experience. 3. What differentiates modernism from postmodernism?
Modernism, in a broader sense, is modern thought, character, or practice braking away with the rules, traditions and existing ways of writing practiced by earlier authors. While postmodernism is the term used to suggest a reaction or response to modernism in the late twentieth century.

4. What is meant by “existence precedes essence”? What is the existentialist orientation to decision-making? Lacking an essence, who creates the self? What is implied by radical freedom?
Existence precedes essence means that the proposition that existence precedes essence is a central claim of existentialism, which reverses the traditional philosophical view that the essence or nature of a thing is more fundamental and immutable than its existence.
Having self-esteem is essential if we are to create the lives we want to live. Inmortal is the essence that deals with the root of self-esteem issues
Radical Freedom: a kind of freedom that is endless, untouchable. Someone with radical freedom character will do anything to benefit themselves no matter what the cost, or who it affects.

5. What differentiates the Hindu concept of self (Atman) from the Buddhist Anatman? Which is avocado and which, artichoke?
Anatman is the idea that there is no self; at least no self in the Hindu definition of atman while in the Buddhist Anatman, this Buddhist doctrine of rebirth should be distinguished from the theory of reincarnation which implies the transmigration of a soul.

6. Why does Thich Nhat Hanh say that it is misleading to suggest that Buddhist practice seeks to “dissolve the self”?
Thich Nhat Hanh See More. Some people say that Buddhist practice is to dissolve the self. They do not understand that there is no self to be dissolved.

7. Reflect on the merits of the "avocado" and "artichoke" perspectives on "human nature." Are there no possibilities