What is involved in framing a counterfactual? Let’s say I have a daydream about living in Shakespeare’s time. Who would I be and what would I do? Well, I’d go to the Globe, that much I know for sure, and bring a notebook. Of course, it is impossible for me to have lived in Shakespeare’s time, for the “me” that is having this revery is the result of genealogies, circumstances, and relationships that cannot be displaced from the second half of the twentieth century without tearing apart the structure of all world history. To have this imagination, I must first assume that there is a “me” that can be transported into times and places whose definition excludes that “me.” Perhaps the concept of an essential self or soul derives from the wish to pursue such scenarios beyond the point at which they crash into inescapable contradictions.

构建反事实涉及什么？假设我有一个生活在莎士比亚时代的白日梦。我会是谁，我会做什么？好吧，我会去 Globe，我知道的就这么多，并带上一个笔记本。当然，我不可能生活在莎士比亚的时代，因为拥有这种遐想的“我”是谱系、环境和关系的结果，这些谱系、环境和关系不能从二十世纪下半叶移开而不撕裂。所有世界历史的结构。为了有这种想象，我必须首先假设有一个“我”可以被传送到其定义中排除了那个“我”的时间和地点。也许本质的自我或灵魂的概念源自于追求这些场景超越它们陷入不可避免的矛盾的点的愿望。