ty, by lessening the interest in one's
self, induces one to take an interest in others. Introspection tends
to make a man a solitary animal, the absence of it a social one. The
more impersonal the people, the more will the community supplant the
individual in the popular estimation.... Then, as the social desires
develop, politeness, being the means of their enjoyment, develops
also."[CI]

Let us take a look at some definitions:

"Individuality, personality, and the sense of self, are only three
aspects of the same thing. They are so many various views of the soul,
according as we regard it from an intrinsic, an altruistic, or an
egoistic standpoint.... By individuality we mean that bundle of ideas,
thoughts, and day-dreams which constitute our separate identity, and
by virtue of which we feel each one of us at home within himself....
Consciousness is the necessary attribute of mental action. Not only is
it the sole way we have of knowing mind; without it there would be no
mind to know. Not to be conscious of one's self is, mentally
speaking, not to be. This complex entity, this little cosmos of a
world, the 'I,' has for its very law of existence, self-consciousness,
while personality is the effect it produces upon the consciousness of
others."[CJ]

The more we study the above definitions, the more baffling they
become. Try as I may, I have not been able to fit them, not only to
the facts of my own experience, which may not be strange, but I cannot
reconcile them even to each other. There seem to me inherent
ambiguities and self-contradictions lurking beneath their scientific
splendor. Individuality is stated to be "that bundle of ideas,
thoughts, and day-dreams which constitute our separate identity." This
seems plain and straightforward, but is it really so? Consciousness is
stated to be not only "the necessary attribute of mental action" (to
which exception might be taken on the ground of abundant proof of
unconscious mental action), but it is also considered to be the very
cause of mind itself. Not only by consciousness do we know mind, but
the consciousness itself constitutes the mind; "without it there would
be no mind to know." "Not to be conscious of one's self is not to be."
Do we then cease to be, when we sleep? or when absorbed in thought or
action? And do we become new-created when we awake? What is the bond
of connection that binds into one the successive consciousnesses of
the successive days? Does not