now just a word on Socrates and the ideal of
'know thyself' -
yes - the point is clear - so long as you understand
that such a quest does not find gold
the fact of an individual entails multiplicity -
multiplicity of selves
or to be more precise - conceptions of self
it is not hard to understand why movement in
space / time - from birth to death covers
a lot of ground -
there is no stopping
and with this a myriad of experience
definition is a constant constraint
but never fool proof
what I am - how I conceive - one day -
is not what I am another
the attempt to deny the multiplicity is
perfectly natural
but never successful
and if this fact is not appreciated
can lead to insanity
just as the absence of definition - or the throwing
away of constraint - or more likely - the actual inability
to make constraint - definition - has the same result
so -
go with the flow
some will say
yes
the point is though that such a conception -
of the self - while it might appear to
accord with the meta reality - of fluidity -
is but one of an infinite number of possible
conceptions of the self - normative conceptions -
which are subject to the flux of
consciousness - the flux of reality
my point is - in general -
Socrates was a methodological sceptic - and primarily -
his scepticism was negative - he offered no positive
position
I am here suggesting an alternative to this
scepticism as primarily a substantive position -
that is a positive position
in this connection my argument is we don't know the self -
in any definitive sense
we can speak of conceptions of the self - attempts -
if you like to give - the self - content - but this is all
that is possible
the self if you like is the place of conception
the self - in itself - a logical space -
content is what we give it
(tertiary conceptions of self)
not what it gives us
finally the self is in an absolute sense free (of content)
it comes as an emptiness (an empty category) to the world
and so remains
despite all the thrashing about
rest in this emptiness
