溫故知新 Old wisdom, today’s insight — ONGO
Am I the Same Person as Yesterday?
If I am always changing, can I still be called one continuous "I"?
All things move on and nothing remains; you could not step twice into the same river.
Heraclitus saw that all things flow (panta rhei). You cannot step into the same river twice — the water, and you, have already changed. Then am I a different person each moment? The question drew a head-on rebuttal. Parmenides held the opposite: true being does not change, and change itself is illusion. Later Hume said the "I" is merely a bundle of passing perceptions with no fixed self, and the Buddhist teaching of non-self (anatta) stood in the same place. From the other side, Locke answered that memory is the thread binding yesterday's self to today's. What threads a river-like self into one? The answers still diverge.
If you have ever felt a stranger to who you were ten years ago, this river is flowing in you too.
📝I, Too, Stand Before It
I meet this question when I look at my own face in an old photograph. Not a single cell of that child remains, thoughts and tastes all changed, yet I still say "that is me." What makes me say so? Heraclitus pointed to the flow, Locke to memory. I feel neither is fully the answer. But before the mystery of living while calling this river — into which slightly different water flows each day — "me," I too stand quietly.
✍️Your Answer
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