Know Thyself ! The Philosophy and Psychology of Self-Examination

Catalog description

The word philosophy literally means a love of wisdom. This suggests that philosophy is not a collection of theories, but an emotional attitude toward a certain way of being. A philosopher is a person who is emotionally committed to becoming wise. The maxim Know Thyself! is regarded a main guiding principle in the philosopher's search for wisdom. It points us back towards ourselves, and presents our own personality as a subject to be studied and examined critically. Many have argued that this is not optional for those who wish to live well: as Socrates put it, the unexamined life is not worth living! Over the next ten weeks, we'll ask what it means to lead an examined life. We'll start by considering the opposite attitude, of the unthinking person who no longer cares to know truth from falsehood. We'll then ask how knowing oneself may differ from knowing others. Is there anything only you can know about yourself? Are there special, introspective means of coming to know yourself? If so, are they immune to error, or can you be mistaken about yourself? How can there be self-deception, where you're both the deceiver and the deceived? We cannot know ourselves fully without knowing our moral character, our virtues and vices, in addition to our thoughts and feelings and wishes. Knowing oneself is arguably a moral obligation, therefore, and thoughtlessness the hallmark of evil. Yet there is another pitfall to avoid, as self-reflection must not collapse into narcissistic self- preoccupation. This distinction will take us into the realm of the Unconscious, which by definition is not accessible to conscious reflection and thus limits how much we can know about ourselves. Despite our best efforts, it may be that we will ultimately remain a mystery to ourselves.