concept
active
concept:the-self-or-i

the self (or 'I')

An eternal, impersonal yet intensely personal core within each person, also called the Void, the ground, or the great Self; the core of every living center.

Neighborhood — ranked by edge-count

Concepts (10)

concept
  • The Self (Human Self)
    related_tosame_as
    The personal experience of being a self, which is left out of the mechanistic world-picture but is central to the new wholeness-based view.
  • the self
    related_to
    The interior awareness, consciousness, and felt identity that each person experiences; absent from mechanistic cosmology.
  • The I (Great Self)
    related_to
    The transcendent ground of all existence, the eternal self within each person, to which we appeal when judging living structure and which is revealed when we truly please ourselves.
  • Centers
    associated_with
    Primary entities of wholeness that arise from configurations and are activated in space; they have different levels of strength or coherence and are intensified by relationships with other centers.
  • The Void
    same_concept_as
    The property that the most profound centers have at their heart a void like water, infinite in depth, surrounded by and contrasted with the clutter around it; the calm emptiness needed by every center to give it the basis of its strength
  • Relatedness
    associated_with
    The direct, felt connection between a person and living structure in the world, which Alexander claims is the most fundamental relation.
  • Eternal self
    extends
    The deep, enduring self that is related to living things; the part of a person that experiences relatedness, distinct from the everyday self.
  • the heart
    associated_with
    The spiritual center in a person, the inward point of contact with the Void, the Self, or God, emphasized in Sufi and Zen teachings.
  • immanent God
    associated_with
    The idea that God is present in all matter, and that this shining forth is more visible in some things than others.
  • Presence
    same_concept_as
    The 'something' that exists in living things, which is the I; an actual, personal quality in matter itself.

Chapters (3)

chapter
  • Chapter 2: Clues From The History Of Art
    mentions
    This chapter of 'The Luminous Ground' examines historical art to find clues for a cosmology that fuses self and matter, emphasizing that profound living structure consistently arises in a mystical-religious context and that we need a new vision of relatedness for our time.
  • The Blazing One
    introduces
    Chapter 6 of Volume 4, The Luminous Ground, by Christopher Alexander. The chapter introduces the I-hypothesis, the plenum of I, and the Blazing One as the ultimate source of life in architecture.
  • The Existence Of An I
    introduces
    Chapter 3 of Book 4 'The Luminous Ground', presenting the concept of the I and the reality of relatedness between self and world.

Related by similarity (8)

cosine ≥ 0.65 · no typed edge

Entities in the same semantic neighborhood but without a typed relation to this one — candidates for new edges or unrecognized duplicates.

  • The I (eternal self)concept0.846
    Central metaphysical concept of the chapter: the universal ground of selfhood that living centers reflect and connect to; what makers must yearn toward to produce living structure.
  • Selfless Selfconcept0.822
    Model of agency in which self is constituted by dynamical patterns of care and goal-pursuit rather than permanent substance or essence.
  • Selfingconcept0.816
    Process of reifying one's identity as an independent self; meditation practices aim to decrease selfing.
  • The I / ultimate selfconcept0.806
    The single blinding unity, the ground of being, which living centers connect us to.
  • Self as Measuring Instrumentconcept0.805
    The epistemological core of Alexander's method: the human observer's inner state is a reliable, replicable measuring device for objective properties of the external world
  • Non-Selfconcept0.798
    Buddhist doctrine that there is no permanent self; grounds non-duality in AI alignment by eliminating adversarial self-preservation
  • Self as imputationconcept0.798
    Buddhist idea that a person is a conceptual designation rather than a substantial entity.
  • Self (TAME definition)concept0.798
    A coherent system owning associations, memories, and preferences, defined by its cognitive light cone.