What is a Self?
             What is the meaning of self? In his writings, The Meditations, Rene Descartes asks the question, "Am I so dependent on the body and the senses that without these I cannot exist?" With this question, Descartes is pondering on the exact location of the self. Well, many people would probably say that you can not exist without a body and some may agree that you can not exist without a mind or a soul.
             Daniel Dennett would probably say that it is possible to exist without the body, but it may be impossible to exist without the brain. In his essay, Where Am I, Dennett states that "it was clear enough, then, that my current body and I could part company, but not likely that I could be separated from my brain." With this statement it is obvious that Dennet actually feels that a person can exist without a body, because he feels that the actual self is located in the mind and soul, not the body.
             The universe in which we live in is not a well ordered, and absolutely answered universe. It is a universe that is uncertain and unpredictable. So is it possible to exist without having a body? No one is sure. Dennet believes that it is possible to exist without the body and even Descartes points out that "Perhaps this only. That there is absolutely nothing certain."
             Personally I would find it quite impossible to exist without the body. Of course everything is connected to the mind and the soul, but there is no way to act upon your thoughts, feelings and emotions without a body. The body has eyes to see, arms and hands to feel, legs to walk, and a mouth to speak. And of course it is true that the brain actually makes all of these different parts of the body work, but the brain itself can not do much without a body.
             A brain can exist without a body, because it is a brain, it is not a body. And a body can exist without a brain, because it is a body, it i
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