Nosce teipsum
THE great delusion of our time –
Nope.
(Also the reminder isn’t “friendly” but that’s another subject.)
Sure, in lots of ways we know more about ourselves than anyone else does, not least because we care more than anyone else does. But by the same token we also distort what we think we know about ourselves, also because we care more than anyone else does.
And there are some things – important things – we can’t know about ourselves as well as other people do. We can’t know how we come across to other people as well as other people do.
A second point: even if we are unusually good at self-knowledge, even if we do make every effort to correct for ego and vanity and self-protection, there is still nothing magic about knowledge-of-self that means we can be something impossible if we believe it fiercely enough. We can fantasize, but we can’t do magic. We can’t become the Chrysler building or a typhoon or a cheeseburger by thinking or believing.
Self knowledge, like any knowledge, can be mistaken. TRAs want to overturn this basic fact.
Self knowledge can be especially mistaken, in fact. In some ways it’s more subject to bias and distortion than other kinds of knowledge. It’s pathetic to see it constantly brandished as infallible.
The craziest thing is to think self knowledge is fixed in time. You will probably adjust it to what you think at the current moment ‘I always really felt like that even though I did not express it at the time. I said something else but deep inside I always felt like I feel now….I’ve always been like this’
Rather than ‘silly me, how could I think/feel such a thing’
This is the same basis that academia is operating on in educating and assessing students – the students know best. They know themselves, so they know what is the best way to determine if they have learned the material. They know what is the best way for the material to be presented to them. They are the best judges of what they have learned.
We live in stupid times.
Donald Trump self-identifies as a two-term President.
“We can fantasize, but we can’t do magic. We can’t become the Chrysler building or a typhoon or a cheeseburger by thinking or believing.”
I feel that really really deep down inside one of the war dragons from Game of Thrones. Can I ask my employer to pay for the surgery to install feathers, claws, and a flame breath reservoir?
“Otherkin are a subculture who socially and spiritually identify as not entirely human. Some otherkin claim that their identity is genetic,[2] while others believe their identity derives from reincarnation, trans-species dysphoria of the soul, ancestry, or metaphor.[1] Joseph P. Laycock, assistant professor of religious studies at Texas State University, considers the belief to be religious.[3] ” -Wikipedia
Screechy, that’s a good response. I think a clip of Trump saying he’s the smartest person ever because he has such good genes would be sufficient disproof to the statement “each individual person knows who they are better than you ever will.”
Are narcissistic people really the best people ever? Are white male rural Christians really the most persecuted people ever? Are people with borderline personality disorder really the only people around who feel things deeply? Are wife-beaters really good husbands who love their wives? (You know, in the morning).
How is any therapy possible without questioning the idea that only the patient can know himself? Already kids with ROGD can’t get therapy that looks into why they have ROGD; the therapists are forbidden from doing anything but shoving them down the greased slide to transition. What condition is next to be taboo? Perhaps therapists won’t be allowed to help anorexics because it would make them anaphobic. Only people suffering from intense anxiety know how dangerous the world is; who would be so conceited as to think they know better? How rude it would be to tell schizophrenics that the voices they hear aren’t real. How disrespectful it would be to disagree with depressed people that they’re worthless failures.
iknklast, I have a funny story to tell you about the students knowing best. Way back when I was teaching Spanish at college, a student group organized class surveys to rate teachers. I refused to hand them out to the class (perhaps that hints at how long ago this was). The survey group representative asked why. I said that one question asked the students to rate, on a scale of one to five, whether the teacher handed out the right amount of homework. She stared at me blankly.
I said if half of the students think I’m handing out too little homework and half think I’m handing out too much homework, then they could all rate me 1 for handing out the wrong amount of homework, whereas the amount of homework I’m handing out would be the ideal amount to please the group. I said you should take a statistical methods class, and this time listen instead of just rating the teacher.
There are so many reasons I’m glad I abandoned academia. Every trend that bothered me then has gotten worse.
It seems like the measure of a Spanish class should be whether the kids can understand and produce Spanish. But are they happy? Do they feel affirmed? Maybe soon teaching foreign languages will be forbidden because it makes students unhappy not to understand what the teacher is saying sometimes.
Brian, you’ve been beaten to the dragon claim; a commentor on a well-known network for free-thinking (sic) sceptics (ditto) genuinely identified as a dragon, even claiming to suffer phantom limb-related pain where the wings and horns should be. Must have saved a fortune on cigarette lighters and barbecue fuel, I suppose.
So “psychics” who have instinctively learned cold reading are actually reading minds, instead of providing verbal cues and interpreting responses? Sorry, don’t believe it.
Acolyte: I should know better than pose an utterly ridiculous idea. Someone out there has taken on the idea and claims it is TROO. I wonder why this commenter has not demanded his insurance provider pay for “species reassignment” surgery?
In the good ol/bad ol days of these innertoobs, there used to be an awful but hilarious website called PORTAL OF EVIL. They LOVED the Otherkin and Furry “communities” as well as the more typical religious foamers and New Age nutjobs.
Seriously, though…how can we reject the claims of said “commenter”? If you believe something, isn’t it true? Just like the people (featured here) who “identify as black” despite being 97% Irish and English. I actually knew a younger brother of a friend who identified very strong with African American culture. It drove his stick in the mud Republican upper middle class parents nuts I am sure. (this WAS old school Republicanism. Still racist. Still classist (It is Indiana, after all) but not batshit crazy)