Self, Person, and Personality

Abstract

The first part of this chapter is devoted to the discussion of the varied conceptions of self, which usually convey what it means to be a person. The Indian tradition has witnessed a long-standing debate between two opposing perspectives on the existence of self. While one of them affirms the existence of self, the other denies it. The former position is reflected mainly among followers of the Upaniṣadic tradition, while the latter involves various schools of Buddhism and materialist followers of Cārvāka. The discussion here focuses mainly on the Advaita of Śaṅkara and Rāmānuja’s Viśiṣṭādvaita, Sāṁkhya-Yoga, Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika and Jainism along with the Buddhist doctrine of no-self (anattā). The second part of the chapter turns to the concept of person called jῑva in Indian thought. It is pointed out that the concept of jῑva as an individual who is conscious (cetā), and is a knower (jnātā), feeler (bhoktā), and agent (kartā) has a close parallel in John Locke’s view of person equipped with capacities for cognition, affect, and volition. Likewise, the parallel is pointed out between the Indian concepts of svabhāva and prakṛti on the one hand, and the concept of personality in modern psychology which recognizes the stable patterns of an individual’s behavior. This is followed by a discussion of the personality typology based on the concepts of guṇas in the Bhagavad-Gītā, doṣas in the medical system of Āyurveda, and pudgala in the Buddhist text called Pudgala-Paññatti. The last section presents an overview of recent psychometric studies of guṇa and doṣa typologies.