{
  "id": "self.personal",
  "term": "self",
  "sense": "personal",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 7,
  "arena": "self",
  "domain": "everyday",
  "style": null,
  "definition": "a part of a person that is distinct from others and serves as the center of their enduring condition",
  "folk_gloss": null,
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "people.social",
      "difference.relation",
      "center.location",
      "others.distinct-entities",
      "part.relation",
      "state.condition",
      "distinct.attribute",
      "condition.state"
    ],
    "interaction": "when a part distinct from others becomes centered within a person, it gives rise to a personal self",
    "novel_properties": [
      "subjective continuity",
      "individual agency",
      "personal identity"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "In 2012, the Voyager 1 probe maintained its identity as 'Earth-made' despite crossing into interstellar space 122 AU from the Sun.",
      "domain": "space-exploration"
    },
    {
      "text": "The Dalai Lama retained his recognized identity through the 2011 transition of political authority to the Tibetan government-in-exile.",
      "domain": "institutions"
    },
    {
      "text": "After a 2016 surgery removed 60% of his hippocampus, patient H.M. still referred to himself using his name and past memories.",
      "domain": "neuroscience"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "id": "people.social",
      "note": "is-a",
      "type": "is-a"
    },
    {
      "id": "others.distinct-entities",
      "note": "contrasts-with",
      "type": "contrasts-with"
    }
  ],
  "used_by": [
    "authenticity.state",
    "despair.state",
    "hope.emotional",
    "identity.self",
    "pride.state",
    "regret.emotional",
    "responsibility.moral",
    "the-three-tiers.structure"
  ],
  "forms": [
    "self",
    "selves"
  ],
  "closed": false,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "openrouter:openai/gpt-oss-120b",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.6,
    "reconciled": {
      "by": "openrouter:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
      "date": "2026-07-31",
      "changed": "factual",
      "note": "fixed by adding missing but necessary concepts 'distinct.attribute' and 'condition.state' which the definition relies on; 'centre.location' was already present as 'center.location'; corrected spelling"
    }
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-self.personal"
}