PHIL 100 Essay: Examining Episodic and Narrative Sense of Self

This essay delves into Galen Strawson's argument against narrativity, contrasting the narrative and episodic senses of self. It explores how individuals with a narrative self perceive themselves as consistent over time, while those with an episodic self are more present-focused and less attached to past memories. The essay discusses the ethical implications of both types of self-perception, arguing that while a narrative self can provide a strong sense of identity, it may also lead to a restrictive or inauthentic view of oneself. Conversely, an episodic self promotes openness to new experiences but may lack a cohesive sense of identity. The essay concludes that while an episodic sense of self can be beneficial, maintaining it throughout life may be challenging due to the human need for self-identity and the pressures imposed by society.

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EPISODIC AND NARRATIVE SENSE OF SELF

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Galen Strawson, in his famous article namely ‘Against Narritivity’ talks against the
narrative sense of self. In this study, it has been said that narrativity is something that is not a
mandatory sense of self for human beings and thus anyone can have other kinds of sense of
selves too, such as episodic sense of self, and there is nothing ethical about it.
Human beings lead their lives in diverse ways having diverse kinds of sense of selves.
Among them, one of the most popular notions is that human beings have a narrative sense of self
that helps them in forming a unified perspective of their own selves that they carry out their
whole lives (Strawson 428). However, there are also other kinds of sense of selves such as
episodic, non narrative, diachronic and more. The episodic sense of self facilitates the fact that
there is no unified version of us. On the contrary, our self concept can change according to the
change in time and with each and every experience that we gather every moment. Thus, these
two types of sense of selves are totally different. Both of them are different in emotional and
ethical terms .For example, in a narrative sense of self, a person sees own self as a consistent
being, who is just exactly the person whom that person used to be in the past.
On the other hand, in an episodic sense of self, one cannot consistently see one’s own self
as the ‘one’ unchanging persona that remains timeless. A strong sense of self can be perceived in
a narrative sense of self. On the contrary, a strong sense of self is missing in an episodic self.
This is so because, episodic self is more concerned with the present and less with the past
(Strawson 431). While on the other hand, a narrative self is concerned with the whole journey
that involves the past, the present and the upcoming future. The difference lies in the fact that an
episodic being can recall their past memories but that recalling is based on how sharp their
memory is and not on how much they are attached with those memories.

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However, they are not intensely affected or interested in their past memories while
narrative beings try to give a form or narration to their lives. In that way, they give a lot of
importance to their past as well as they do to their predicted future. Moreover, the sense of a
singular ‘me’ or a ‘self’ is there in the minds of the narrative beings while there are a wide range
of sense of self in episodic beings (Strawson 433). In addition, the episodic beings do not
connect all of those different selves in order to perceive the full story of their lives.
As mentioned earlier, this study supports what is supported by the author Galen Strawson
in his article. In the article, two types of narrative selves have been explained including a
psychological narrative self and an ethical or normative narrative self. So, the notion that leading
a narrative self is ethically good is not supported in this study. This is so because it may happen
that a particular person has a wrong sense of self. In that case, having a narrative sense of self
cannot be marked as ‘good’. Apart from this, the normative narrative sense of self restricts the
wideness of a being (Strawson 437). If we say that one person is narrative and that is why that
person is living a good life then it is automatically established that the people living a non
narrative life are leading bad lives.
Thus, diversity of self perspectives is hindered in the normative narrative sense of self.
However, the descriptive or psychological narrative self is helpful for the psychotherapists to
analyze one’s life. This is because most probably, the narrative beings are more responsive
towards their past experiences or memories. On the other hand, it is also true that narrative lives
can be led by unauthentic chains of stories about one self and in that case, it can end up with a
series of ‘bad faith’ believed by that self. So, psychological narrative sense of self can be
supported. However, it can also be mentioned that no universalized version of it can be accepted.

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On the other hand, episodic selves lead a far more detached life where they do not give
the most importance to the unified version of self concepts. In that way, they become less self
centered and more open to all kinds of experiences (Strawson 439). So, it can be said that they
live in the present although they remember what happened in their lives in the past. This leads to
a less traumatic and stress free life. Thus it can be said that this kind of sense of self is healthy
for an individual. However, it is also true that leading a fully episodic life can be tough. This is
so because our emotional attachments to the memories of the past and the fear regarding our
future sometimes make us more concerned with the self. So, it is difficult to say that it is possible
to continue an episodic sense of self throughout one’s whole life.
This is opined because having a sense of a singular self for a person is like having a sense
of self identity. An episodic life can fail in giving that sense of identity to a person. Thus, it is
difficult to imagine that someone is living without having any sense of self identity. However, in
my opinion, it is good to live that way other than living within the pressure of a narrative sense
of self. The term ‘pressure’ is mentioned so that it becomes easier to understand that for many
psychologists, the narrative sense of self is inescapable. So, if someone succeeds in escaping this
type of sense of self then an automatic pressure may be imposed within that person by the
surrounding society or the surrounding people.
So, in this study, the article by Strawson has been analyzed in order to understand the
concepts of sense of selves and how different these senses of selves are from each other. Finally,
it has been opined that an episodic sense of self is good but maybe it is not possible to live with
this kind of sense of self throughout a whole life.

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Work cited
Strawson, Galen. "Against narrativity." Ratio 17.4 (2004): 428-452. Print.