Know Thyself

Who are you? The words ‘know thyself' - ‘gnothi seauton’ - were inscribed in stone above the Ancient Greek Temple of Apollo at Delphi.

Philosophers have mused on self-knowledge and its uses ever since. But is it possible to ever 'Know Thyself'? Psychologists, such as Bruce Hood, have even suggested that the self is an illusion and there may not be a self to know.

Narrated by Stephen Fry. Scripted by Nigel Warburton.

This project is from the BBC in partnership with The Open University, the animations were created by Cognitive.

[pamconparta]

don't mind me, just having another existential crisis

[deemadisen]

To know oneself, start with an iron will, and a broken heart.

[petergoestohollywood]

"Infinity is the same as zero... because zero is just another infinit." If you can wrap your head around that sentence you will get an idea of how the "self" can be percieved. How it can be but at the same time seems to be vast and inexistent.

[HelenaWilliams]

A beautiful lesson specified in 2:07 min. Thank you, BBC!

[wfdy]

Thomas Hobbes “if you want to know others, study yourself and you will know what is it like to be someone else.”

[epiphilosophy]

Socrates: "I too speak not as one who knows; and yet that knowledge differs from true opinion is not a matter of conjecture with me. There are not many things which I should affirm that I knew, but that is most certainly one of them." - Meno (p. 302)

Socrates: "We shall be better & braver & less helpless if we think that we ought to enquire, than we should have been if we indulged in the idle fancy that there was no knowing and no use in searching after what we do not know;--that is a theme upon which I am ready to fight, in word & deed, to the utmost of my power." - Meno (p. 289)

[LadyPallas]

Know thyself. Know that I am not only what I think, but also what I experience. I am both a physical body that can die and be reborn, and I am also an immortal soul, seeing the world from one body to the next. Do not know myself. Do not know others. We are as we have always been. Thyself.

[wasumyon]

The knowledge of the self as an illusion is much older than Bruce Hood. If you want to know the mind, sit down and observe it.

[breh]

Very informative and concise video. Good job

[monkey]

Accept that, that you need the wisdom of a Rishi. Otherwise we all will fall in the mesh of doubt and delusion.

[MosesJesusElijah]

Know thyself? Why do people grab this as it to be from another dimension? It is plain and simple “know....thyself” plain and simple “know thyself”/know your self. Know your self! If you can lift 800 pounds or not, know your self. If you are too old to take care of your self or not, know your self. If you are too drunk to drive or not, know your self. In what position you’re in when you speak to some one, know....your....self! Simple, why do people take this to points A to point H, to point W, to point Z. Like to study the structure of your face will give you understanding of the molecules in the 1, 378th galaxy. I’m sure your gods must be shaking their heads🤦🏻‍♂️

Just know your self not to take your self to extremities that you ruin your self. It is good to push your self to excel but not to ruin your self, so just “know thyself”

[jesseball]

The Oracle would have visions. If one didn't know thyself, one would project one self into that vision. Jung says what ever is unknown to us we will project yourself into that. So if we don't project we might know yourself.

[hannah.ali]

i can truly understand the there is no self

[wfdy]

The self is an illusion??? The is no self to know?? Woah

[Donteatacowman]

Ohhh there's a lot here, and nothing to refute exactly. So instead lemme stream of consciousness this one.

Gnothi seauton / Γνώθι Σεαυτόν / Know thyself - This is one of those phrases that could be actually deep or fake deep depending on interpretation. Do they mean to know yourself as a social being, like as if you were another person you could interact with? To be aware of your existence separately from other people's? To understand your reasoning behind your actions? You could interpret this a million ways. Why was this on the temple of Apollo (sun god) specifically when it seems more appropriate for someone like Athena? Well, it's the temple of Delphi, famous for prophecy. But this is also apparently taken out of context--it's part of a set of three maxims! "Know thyself, nothing to excess, surety brings ruin." γνῶθι σεαυτόν / μηδὲν ἄγαν /Ἐγγύα πάρα δ'ἄτη I wonder if this is a statement of morality or just a code of conduct for the cult?

It's easy to find old scholarly sources but not modern ones discussing the maxims in context other than Plato. Why did this temple have these in the first place? Looks like there was a list of 147(!) divine maxims supposedly given by the oracle at Delphi (although possibly aggregated from other sources and attributed to the oracle). The other maxims include stuff like: respect the gods; honor your parents; control your temper; praise virtue; be happy with what you have; control your wife. So it seems more like popular sayings embracing traditional common sense values (which, as the last one I said implies, is not necessarily a good moral choice!) for ancient Greek society. In terms of the ones that mention yourself/thyself, you are supposed to: Know yourself; be yourself; be in control of yourself ; benefit yourself ; respect yourself. So I'm inclined to think it's not that deep and Socrates was only using a well-known phrase as a jumping off point for philosophizing about the source of knowledge.

IMO humans understand the world through a mix of perception (sensory data), past experiences (memory retrieval & how we were raised to interpret our perceptions), and cognitive bias caused by physical/neurological traits that are inborn or develop with age or injury (heuristics, instincts, impulses, brain damage).

My response to myself in that above sentence ^ is, hang on, so personality is caused ONLY by nature, nurture, and the senses? As a for-instance, what about being gay? I myself came out as gay despite being raised in a way that made me ignorant of homosexuality. That's not caused by nurture or perception. But, sexuality is fluid. That means there isn't a gay gene or any hormone combo that can alter homosexuality. It can't be purely neurological. Or heck, what about if you like or hate broccoli? You might hate it as a kid but love it as an adult. What's up with that?

To that, I'd say--no, that's still describing instinct. I didn't make a conscious choice to be gay (although I chose to make it a part of my public persona). I guess it's possible that there's some kind of force on our actions (the soul, God, past lives, alien mind control beams) that influences us besides senses/mind/body, but it's probably adequate to say that these instincts have physical causes in the brain (or else they would not provoke a physical response like arousal or disgust or hunger). We can probably leave it at that without trying to specify the evolutionary or neurological or spiritual or alien-ray reason it happens.

Anyway, now that we have established our so-called selves and (at least some of) their influences, we can get back to the vid. Everything I described above has the flaw that it can't be proven to be objective reality. We all know that sensory information is wrong sometimes, eg optical illusions, and can be manipulated. Memory is malleable too, since false memories can be created and past memories can be inaccurate. The physical traits in our brains are subject to our physical health and can therefore be changed through medical intervention or physical trauma. We have no single 100% reliable and accurate way to understand objective reality. The best we can do is acknowledge that and try to work around our known biases through things like the scientific method or rationality, while being aware that even those processes may lead to erroneous conclusions. Ideally we'd all be able to change our minds immediately based on new and probably-valid information, and to be able to consider multiple explanations as plausible at the same time instead of being attached to only one theory, making us get closer to being correct without ever getting to truth 100% of the time. But, thanks to those cognitive biases I mentioned, that's a struggle :)

This is getting long, will move to replies

[peanut]

Obviously, Psychologist Bruce Hood does not "Know Himself" or his students. His job didn't appear in the 1890's AD.

[Ncop]

The last theory is cool, "if oneself is an illusion then no self to know". But it's wrong, or the conclusion is wrong. Why? It doesn't help, and not realistic.
(You might even "kill" some of us with it)

[mikeel]

Extrapolating from history that 1+1 does not equal 2.

[somethingyousaid]

If I reference my Self I reference my existent Self, not my non-existent Self. What's he mean it may be only an illusion? I'm not referencing an illusion.

[cleangoblin]

Wot?
Im left more confused. I'm impulsive, immature and a fuckin know it all.
Also people tell me im smart(or could be) to me i know im an incompetent dumbass as today my biggest fk up of replacing the sink thinking i know how to work with pvc pipes. I really dont know what do with myself at 30