The Self Under Fire

Two ancient denials of the self, the modern mechanics that vindicated their question, and the practical ledger: what changes if nobody persists?

The denials. Buddhist philosophy said it first: anatta—no fixed, enduring self; the person is like a flame at midnight and dawn, continuous without a persisting thing. Hume, auditing by introspection an ocean and two millennia away, filed the same finding: look inward and you catch perceptions, never the perceiver. A bundle, not an owner. Independent traditions, one verdict—which is itself evidence the question is real and not a cultural accident.