CRITICAL THINKING: contextualise, clarify and problematise
1. What is concept?
- Concepts are constructed ideas or notions to create meaning; can change depending on context, place, time; self is a concept
- Sets of concepts become theories, stories we tell to make sense of our experience
- Shared theories turn into 'world views'
Studying at university requires the learning skills to appreciate that all knowledge is constructed within a particular culture of time.
2. What have been the different concepts of self during the history of (Western) philosophy?
- Mediaeval world view: God/soul
- chain of being
- self = soul
- fixed social identity, part of a larger story
- participatory knowing eg. walnut (looks like brain) good for brain ailments; magical thinking - Modern world view: light of reason opened enlightenment
- man becomes the measure (instead of God) with reason, ratio, science, relationship between parts
- mind over matter: I think therefore I am (Descartes)
- social atoms (Locke); implied social contract between individuals
- objective knowing, relying on reason instead of the senses - Post-modern world view: beyond Modern understanding
- no longer can believe in grand unified theories (eg. science's claim it has all the answers). Question science.
- critique of rationality - does not solve all problems
- acknowledge other ways of knowing, other cultures
- acknowledgement of the sub/unconscious - there are parts of our own mind that we don't understand - Post-modern concept of self:
- many concepts of self
- celebrate diversity
- context is crucial
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