Presentation
This year's lecture explores one of the major controversies of ancient and medieval India, namely the dispute over the existence and nature of the self(ātman), the unalterable principle deemed to ensure the permanence and identity of each individual beyond death itself. Is there something within us that endures despite the countless changes that constantly affect us? Doesn't consciousness maintain a privileged relationship with this permanent principle? And, to escape existential pain, should we seek to discover the self beyond our perpetual metamorphoses, or is personal identity just an illusion we need to get rid of? The debate has mobilized all the great philosophical traditions of India. It led their representatives to engage in fascinating reflections on memory, conscious reflexivity, the foundation of subjectivity, and how language shapes our understanding of ourselves.