The ancient injunction to know thyself has different ramifications in the contemporary world. In the past, it was an invitation to philosophical contemplation, relating the inner world of the meditative personality to the world at large.
But in modernity, to know oneself means knowing a machine. For the modern person ideally wishes to view himself or herself as a a machine. "How well to I operate under pressure?" might be a question asked by a person today about themselves. "Am I a hard worker?" "Do I take into account the needs and perspectives of other operators within the system?" These can be useful questions for a person operating within the system to ask, but they relate to understanding oneself not in a philosophical, meditative sense, but as a piece of mechanics.
To know oneself is to find the measure of how far one falls short of a perfect, operating machine and to try to rectify this. One strives, therefore, for perfection, especially with regard to underperforming parts of one's psyche. One oils the cogs by applying different commercial salves and balms. One hopes ultimately to succeed, to become the quintessential well-oiled machine that is, in theory at least, unstoppable.
Self-knowledge, today, is almost diametrically opposite to self-knowledge as a principle of gaining wisdom.
Nietzsche probably already saw the historical doom of this enterprise, or at least had an inkling as to its limitations, for he noted that to know oneself was to have done with oneself: a boring proposition in all. Pervasive, inside and out knowledge, especially when this is deemed to be scientifically evaluated from the outside, leaves a person with very little that is personal.
Bataille no doubt saw the futility in continuing to strive for that which would simply control you systematically and mechanically.
In today's age, freedom is attained in the opposite direction from typical self-knowledge. Rather, one must endeavor to unlearn much of what one already imagines oneself to know.
But in modernity, to know oneself means knowing a machine. For the modern person ideally wishes to view himself or herself as a a machine. "How well to I operate under pressure?" might be a question asked by a person today about themselves. "Am I a hard worker?" "Do I take into account the needs and perspectives of other operators within the system?" These can be useful questions for a person operating within the system to ask, but they relate to understanding oneself not in a philosophical, meditative sense, but as a piece of mechanics.
To know oneself is to find the measure of how far one falls short of a perfect, operating machine and to try to rectify this. One strives, therefore, for perfection, especially with regard to underperforming parts of one's psyche. One oils the cogs by applying different commercial salves and balms. One hopes ultimately to succeed, to become the quintessential well-oiled machine that is, in theory at least, unstoppable.
Self-knowledge, today, is almost diametrically opposite to self-knowledge as a principle of gaining wisdom.
Nietzsche probably already saw the historical doom of this enterprise, or at least had an inkling as to its limitations, for he noted that to know oneself was to have done with oneself: a boring proposition in all. Pervasive, inside and out knowledge, especially when this is deemed to be scientifically evaluated from the outside, leaves a person with very little that is personal.
Bataille no doubt saw the futility in continuing to strive for that which would simply control you systematically and mechanically.
In today's age, freedom is attained in the opposite direction from typical self-knowledge. Rather, one must endeavor to unlearn much of what one already imagines oneself to know.
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