• Ragian Azariah
    2
    Why am I who I am? Why am I me? Out of all the things I could have been in this world, I came as me. I could've been a cat, a dog, another person, in another time, place, in another planet, galaxy. That's one in a infinite chance that I am me. That just blows my mind.
  • Tom Storm
    9.2k
    This depends entirely on how you choose to look at it. Animals are born in their billions - some are cats & dogs, some are humans. You are a human. So what? If you find a pen on the street in the morning do you say, 'Wow, that's amazing, why did it have to be a pen, it could have been a ruler, or a watch? And why this morning and not last week, or in 2019 and why here and not in Zambia or Darwin?'
  • khaled
    3.5k
    I think that question makes as much sense as "Why is this car a car? Why is this car not a chocolate cake? Out of all the things the car could have been, it turned out to be a car, not some type of cake! That just blows my mind"
  • Outlander
    2.2k
    Because you refuse to ask why are you not who you aren't. In most cases this is based on circumstances you did not decide nor have any control over so it renders both questions moot. Or does it? This is for you to decide, and perhaps, just perhaps in this process gain a sliver, just a sliver, of a true sense of identity.
  • god must be atheist
    5.1k
    I had struggled with that question in the early part of my adult life.

    Apparently, and it took me just as much by surprise as it will take you now, it is a question known to be mainly (or only?) entertained by those who have before or after the obsession with this thought severe psychosis.

    This was in the DSM IV. (Diagnostics and Statistical Manual, fourth edition.) DSM is the hand book of psychiatry, to help establish or identify the mental-emotional-cognitive disease a person who suffers from it.

    The passage said that this question is never resolved, and the person just gives up and goes on to tackle other obstacles in his or her life; eventually the question and the need for an answer fades out so much so that it, for all practical purposes, disappears.
  • Ragian Azariah
    2
    I guess I am who I am because I am. If I were someone else, someone else would be me and would be asking this same question.
  • Agent Smith
    9.5k
    Why am I me?

    The question assumes that I could be someone else. Yet, if I am someone else, I would cease to exist. I would be that someone and not me. I can't be someone else and still be me is what I'm driving at.
  • Miller
    158


    You don't exist, only reality exists. and its eternal

    Reality cannot create separate selves, it's an illusion.
  • Present awareness
    128
    The reason I am me is because everyone else is taken!
  • Banno
    25.3k


    Had you been anyone else, you would still be asking "why am I me and not someone else?"

    The question is senseless.
  • Tom Storm
    9.2k
    I guess I am who I am because I am.Ragian Azariah

    That's exactly what Yahweh thought and look what happened there...
bold
italic
underline
strike
code
quote
ulist
image
url
mention
reveal
youtube
tweet
Add a Comment

Welcome to The Philosophy Forum!

Get involved in philosophical discussions about knowledge, truth, language, consciousness, science, politics, religion, logic and mathematics, art, history, and lots more. No ads, no clutter, and very little agreement — just fascinating conversations.