Know thyself

[Sriram]

Hi everyone,

Here is a good article about 'know thyself', the unconscious mind, God and the inner self.

https://metanexus.net/god-and-unconscious/

***********

In Ancient Greece, written in gold over the temple portal at Delphi was the inscription, gnothi seauton—“Know Thyself.” The Roman poet Juvenal claimed these words had descended from heaven. Knowledge of oneself, this inscription suggested, constituted the doorway into religious wisdom—sacred knowledge presupposed self knowledge. In the quest to know oneself, the question naturally arises: by what means, with which methods, are we to come to know ourselves? Careful observation, systematic measurement—the methods of scientific enquiry—seem to reveal much about the “outer man”; but how are we to arrive at sound and sure knowledge of what Augustine called the “inner man” (interior homo)?

To begin, it seems that there is something inescapably private about the uniquely human phenomenon of consciousness. Our private thoughts and emotions may have subtle external manifestations that can indirectly elicit from others empathy and mutual understanding. Nevertheless, direct access to one’s own subjective cognitive or affective states seems restricted to “first person” experience alone. So it might seem that introspection—casting the light of our conscious awareness inward—must be the proper method by which we come to know such states, and thus, to know ourselves. Introspection directs the illuminating beam of consciousness toward the subject’s own inner life and experience.

But, if we understand the unconscious rightly, we see that human beings—contra Freud—are by nature never fully analyzable. We humans are beguiling in our intractable mysteriousness: the psyche is always outstripping attempts at facile formulation, and our unconscious mental life forever recedes from our grasp. We can discover (as Augustine did) suggestive signposts, tantalizing clues, and sometimes real self-discoveries; but we will never fully formulate, in Gnostic fashion, the secret of the self, no matter how much unconscious material we bring to conscious awareness. There always remains a mysterious core—a personal center—whose depths are never fully plumbed.

***********

Cheers.

Sriram

[Nearly Sane]

Hi everyone,

Here is a good article about 'know thyself', the unconscious mind, God and the inner self.

https://metanexus.net/god-and-unconscious/

***********

In Ancient Greece, written in gold over the temple portal at Delphi was the inscription, gnothi seauton—“Know Thyself.” The Roman poet Juvenal claimed these words had descended from heaven. Knowledge of oneself, this inscription suggested, constituted the doorway into religious wisdom—sacred knowledge presupposed self knowledge. In the quest to know oneself, the question naturally arises: by what means, with which methods, are we to come to know ourselves? Careful observation, systematic measurement—the methods of scientific enquiry—seem to reveal much about the “outer man”; but how are we to arrive at sound and sure knowledge of what Augustine called the “inner man” (interior homo)?

To begin, it seems that there is something inescapably private about the uniquely human phenomenon of consciousness. Our private thoughts and emotions may have subtle external manifestations that can indirectly elicit from others empathy and mutual understanding. Nevertheless, direct access to one’s own subjective cognitive or affective states seems restricted to “first person” experience alone. So it might seem that introspection—casting the light of our conscious awareness inward—must be the proper method by which we come to know such states, and thus, to know ourselves. Introspection directs the illuminating beam of consciousness toward the subject’s own inner life and experience.

But, if we understand the unconscious rightly, we see that human beings—contra Freud—are by nature never fully analyzable. We humans are beguiling in our intractable mysteriousness: the psyche is always outstripping attempts at facile formulation, and our unconscious mental life forever recedes from our grasp. We can discover (as Augustine did) suggestive signposts, tantalizing clues, and sometimes real self-discoveries; but we will never fully formulate, in Gnostic fashion, the secret of the self, no matter how much unconscious material we bring to conscious awareness. There always remains a mysterious core—a personal center—whose depths are never fully plumbed.

***********

Cheers.

Sriram

Unsure how given the intractable mysteriousness, the writer can conclude that they have a 'self' never mind that anyone else does.

It does a lot of pointing out what it seems impossible to know to then just assert as true things that it would logically seem impossible to know. The throwaway line about the 'uniquely human phenomenon of consciousness' is an example but the entire argument is built like that.

There's a use of the difficulties of quantum theory where people go 'look, it's really hard, and it makes how we think about everything questionable so what I think is shown to be right because of that' which is mirrored here. It combines the 'with one bound, he was free' cheat of bad fiction writers with the Blue Peter 'here's one I prepared earlier' jump to try and slip in an unjustified set of assertions.

Reading the article is like watching a really bad stage magician trying to distract you from the elephant that they are sitting on.