The objective endurance of the minimal self according to dan Zahavi and its implication on the use of Facebook

The notion of the self is a concept with a long and colorful history in philosophy. Recently, a relationship-centered, relational, postmodern view of the self rose to dominate the discussion, especially in the humanities and social sciences. The birth and prevalent use of information technology, such as social media, seem to reinforce this conclusion. It appears that we have reached the end of the road and that relations are all there is. This paper attempts to show that this is not the case. I employ the alternative notion the Minimal Self as put forward by Danish phenomenologist Dan Zahavi, to counter the aforementioned view of a relational, constructionist, networked self. It will be shown that even in the case of Facebook, a social media platform that seems to rest solely on sociality, it is instead the subjective, non-reflective, non-relational, first-person experience that renders such online existence possible. It will be argued that the Minimal Self remains a necessary component of the self. It serves the structure of the self and, at the same time, serves as a supplementary precondition to the narrative self. It has the potential to reconcile the fluidity and relational character of human existence in the digital age and the attempt for a human subject to locate oneself as a unified being- in-the-world. The Minimal Self is the answer to the persisting and unified identity between online and offline.