Consciousness and the World | by Riccardo Manzotti | NYR Daily | The New York Review of Books

Tim: You mean, essentially, that we are objects, and objects “take place,” rather than act.

Riccardo: We are part of the physical world, hence objects. What else could we be—immaterial souls?

As for identity, we are what we are because we are identical with a portion of the world that has come together over the years in a certain way. The traditional separation of subject and object that underpins all standard thinking on consciousness and identity lies at the heart of our troubles as individuals and as a society. Convinced that we are separate from the world, we feel we have been expelled from the Garden of Eden, and we yearn to return, maybe after death. But however useful the subject-object divide may be for all kinds of practical matters, it is plain wrong.