Self-Knowledge and Its Discontents
نویسنده
چکیده
INTRODUCTION On Apollo’s ancient temple at Dephi three Greek maxims were inscribed whose importance was reaffirmed in Roman times, preserved in gilt letters. The most famous of these, “Know thyself,” forms the focus of this essay and constitutes one of philosophy’s most central ideals. If Heraclitus gave the injunction to selfknowledge its earliest surviving expression, recommending “to all men to know themselves and use moderation,” it was Socrates who established it at the core of philosophy. Acclaimed by the Delphic oracle as the wisest of all men, he claims his superior wisdom is only the self-knowledge of his ignorance, while others falsely believe themselves wise and knowledgeable. He even argues that the oracle declared him wisest so as to prompt his critical search for wiser men and thus show that the most reputed “human wisdom is worth little or nothing.” Rather than engaging in lofty speculations, Socrates confesses “I am still unable, as the Delphic inscription orders, to know myself; and it really seems to me ridiculous to look into other things before I have understood that.” Deploying the injunction of self-knowledge to remind the arrogant Alcibiades of his current limitations, Socrates affirms such knowledge as the necessary spur for cultivating oneself for the political leadership his ambitious young lover seeks. “Trust in me and in the Delphic inscription and ‘know thyself’,” Socrates tells him, for “every human being needs self-cultivation, but especially us.”
منابع مشابه
Self-Care Behaviors’ Glycemic Control and its Related Factors in Type II Diabetes Women Patients
Introduction: Diabetes is the most common metabolic disorder and can have devastating complications. The objective of this study was to determine self-care behaviors for glycemic control and its related factors in type II diabetes women patients. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study, conducted in 2016 on a randomly selected sample of 120 women volunteers, aged over 30 years, referr...
متن کاملSome discontents with theoretical unification: a response to Henriques' "psychology defined".
In response to Henriques' article "Psychology Defined" (this issue), I argue that theoretical unification should not be pursued for its own sake and that many psychologists are unlikely to endorse the specific unifying principles of the Tree of Knowledge System. It is suggested that other scholarly endeavors such as the open pursuit of truth, sustained dialogue among diverse discourse communiti...
متن کاملSelf-Confidence in Psychology and Islamic Ethics: Towards an Interpretive Framework and Its Relation to Trust in God
This paper focuses on self-confidence in psychology in both conceptual and empirical ways and investigates the status of self-confidence in Islamic ethics. Five relevant approaches to self-confidence are identified and then comparatively studied in psychology and Islamic ethics. In addition, an attempt is made to present an appropriate framework to build, boost, and improve self-confidence thro...
متن کاملAnalyzing the tradition, hadith, of self-knowledge with regard to the knowledge of God
Deep thinking on the tradition and analyzing other tradition dealing with knowledge of human soul distinguish this proof from those of philosophers and theologians. Availability, unity of the path and the follower and, most particularly, its being intuitive enter the follower to an objective state and, contrary to conceptual proofs, leads him/her to the presence of God. Again, this traditio...
متن کامل