#39: You Don't Exist — Can Jay Garfield Convince You?

Do you actually exist? Not your body, not your thoughts — but you. The unified, continuous self you have always assumed was there.

Buddhist philosophy says no. And one of the world's leading philosophers is here to make the case.

In this episode of The Prometheans, I sit down with Professor Jay L. Garfield — philosopher at Yale-NUS College and Harvard Divinity School, and one of the foremost Western interpreters of Buddhist philosophy — to explore one of the most radical and consequential ideas in the history of human thought: that the self is an illusion.

We go deep on Nāgārjuna's 2,000-year-old argument that nothing — including you — has independent, inherent existence. We examine what Buddhism means by "no-self" (anātman), how that idea connects to David Hume's bundle theory, and what modern neuroscience is discovering about the constructed nature of consciousness. And we ask the hard questions: If there is no self, who is morally responsible? Who suffers? Who is liberated?

This conversation sits at the crossroads of Buddhist metaphysics, analytic philosophy, and the deepest questions of interfaith dialogue. Whether you come from a theistic tradition or none at all, the challenge Garfield brings is one you cannot easily dismiss.