What does big-5 mean?

What does the word 'I' Mean?

• I mean people have considered 'I' to represent the person speaking, writing or whatever... So it represents the whole of the person right? So when we say 'I think' What do we mean by 'I' does it mean the whole of me, if so what even our legs and arms are thinking, lets try and make this clearer, when we say 'I like food', what is meant by I the whole of the person, so even my body parts like my arms liek the food, even my hair likes the food, what is meant by 'I' , this has really been bugging me, that now i have confusion when writing or saying anything , i mean i can say it but later ill think what does that mean... This can be all sentences phrases built from I(or even he she it we they etc.) , when we say 'i speak', ( speak means utter words), so I utter words, so what 'i' the whole of me utters the words even my fingers, this whole confuses me, also, 'i am stupid' , what does 'i' mean here, the whole of me considered stupid even my legs, this doesn't make sense to me... yes i know it sounds crazy, but i cannot comprehend if i dont understand, so please help, sorry if this confuses you. and like to try and help convey my confusion, 'i am confused' , what the whole of me is confused , surely my physical existence isnt confused , are my fingernails confused, my legs? what? can anyone help so i can just think the way over people do this is really confusing, thanks.

• Answer:

  This sort of language depends on the idea of the self. When you say "I," you're referring to that part of your being which is unique and relatively unchanging. Lots of people have fingers, so you're not referring to fingers - you're only referring to your "self," which is sort of like a soul. The self is the thing which we imagine to have feelings, desires, etc. It's an extension of the mind, or maybe a way of describing the mind. If you want to get into the language question in a little more depth it gets more complicated. Someone that gets shot might say "he shot me" rather than "he shot my arm," for example, which implies that the linguistic self is in certain cases coextensive with the bodily self. I wouldn't worry about that too much, though. For what you're talking about, the word "I" doesn't describe your whole body, just your mind/soul/spirit/self. Just to complicate things a little, I'll mention that lots of people (myself included) don't believe in the self. It's just a piece of language we've inherited. The linked Wiki article goes into it in more detail.