Is it paradoxical that 'we' often think to 'ourselves?'

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e. g., I was thinking to myself. Who is ‘I’ and who is ‘myself?’ This really suggests more than one inner voice!

What is really happening when we say ‘I’ was thinking to ‘myself?’ What constructs are at play here? Is all thinking based on one ‘self,’ or do we have more than one ‘self’ dwelling within the mind?

Some may simple say that it’s all a matter of speech, but I suspect more is going on here.
 
Robert_Sock said:
e. g., I was thinking to myself. Who is ‘I’ and who is ‘myself?’ This really suggests more than one inner voice!

What is really happening when we say ‘I’ was thinking to ‘myself?’ What constructs are at play here? Is all thinking based on one ‘self,’ or do we have more than one ‘self’ dwelling within the mind?

Some may simple say that it’s all a matter of speech, but I suspect more is going on here.
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One self from different vantage points - the operation from the same.
 
I think too much can be made of this issue. I don’t see a “paradox”. We only us the words “ourselves” or "we’ because what other befitting words would there be?

You are simply putting a conscious thought together in your mind and use the vernacular to describe it.
 
johnnyjones said:
I think too much can be made of this issue. I don’t see a “paradox”. We only us the words “ourselves” or "we’ because what other befitting words would there be?

You are simply putting a conscious thought together in your mind and use the vernacular to describe it.
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Me, myself, and I are the same entity. I don’t see any paradox.
 
johnnyjones said:
I think too much can be made of this issue. I don’t see a “paradox”. We only us the words “ourselves” or "we’ because what other befitting words would there be?

You are simply putting a conscious thought together in your mind and use the vernacular to describe it.
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All that exists in my mind are voices, nothing thinking.
 
Robert_Sock said:
All that exists in my mind are voices, nothing thinking.
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Well, that’s a problem for you. I mean no offense but “voices” being processed is thinking. Thinking to oneself with different expressions and the same outcome.
 
I almost always think in the third person. Even when I write notes on homilies or on scriptures, I almost always use “we”. I think it’s because I write so much and I also teach, I naturally think in the third person. Or maybe it’s because it distances me from the subject a little bit. “I” is much more personal.

Sometimes, especially when meditating, the people in the scenes have different “voices”. That’s because I have a very good imagination and I would expect St. Peter, for example, to sound different than I do.

No, I don’t have extra “people” living in my head. I know that for a fact.
Kris
 
klm120861 said:
I almost always think in the third person. Even when I write notes on homilies or on scriptures, I almost always use “we”. I think it’s because I write so much and I also teach, I naturally think in the third person. Or maybe it’s because it distances me from the subject a little bit. “I” is much more personal.

Sometimes, especially when meditating, the people in the scenes have different “voices”. That’s because I have a very good imagination and I would expect St. Peter, for example, to sound different than I do.

No, I don’t have extra “people” living in my head. I know that for a fact.
Kris
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Just a nitpicky thing– “We” is still first person. It’s just plural. “He/she/it/they” is 3rd person.

Also, I completely understand the bit about different voices. If I sing a song in my head or replay an episode of a TV show (I have all of Band Geeks from Spongebob memorized), I can hear it in their voices.
 
Robert_Sock said:
Serious in what respect? Having three voices within me?
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I exist, therfore I am. You don’t have three voices. You have bought into the phraseology “we” often think to “ourselves”. You have heard the expression, usually humorous, “are WE feeling okay today?” Figure of speech, improper diction, but, a forced vernacular. Whatever you want to call it. Botton line, when you are having an internal thought, it is you alone, any other concept is brought on by the misuse or overuse of words.
 
Razanir said:
Just a nitpicky thing– “We” is still first person. It’s just plural. “He/she/it/they” is 3rd person,
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After homeschooling my son all the way to second semester of 9th grade, you would think I would remember that, wouldn’t you!😃
 
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