Ben Waber reviewed Selfless by Brian Lowery
An Incredible Book at the Intersection of Social Psychology and Philosophy
5 stars
This is a singular, incredible book, with Lowery combining social psychology and philosophy to interrogate the nature of self, arguing convincingly the self is socially constructed, defined, and best understood as a continuous social process rather than an internal, unchanging phenomenon. He examines the nature of self from a variety of perspectives, often using psychological experiments to demonstrate how malleable seemingly core traits are and how dramatically they shift and change based on experience and social context, then layers on philosophical analysis to pick apart notions of biological essentialism of the self. This concludes, meaningfully, with an honestly uplifting and beautiful analysis of what death of the self truly means. Absolute must read. Highly recommend