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Full Idea
As a being who grows and becomes I can only know myself through the history of my maturations and regressions, overcomings and defeats.
Gist of Idea
I can only be aware of myself as a person who changes by means of my personal history
Source
Charles Taylor (Sources of the Self [1989], §2.3)
Book Ref
Taylor,Charles: 'Sources of the Self' [CUP 1992], p.50
A Reaction
An important insight. My immediate sense of self makes my personal history central, not an extra. But a history must be a history OF something.
| 4006 | I can only be aware of myself as a person who changes by means of my personal history [Taylor,C] |
| 21050 | I can only make decisions if I see myself as part of a story [MacIntyre] |
| 7381 | We tell stories about ourselves, to protect, control and define who we are [Dennett] |
| 7382 | We spin narratives about ourselves, and the audience posits a centre of gravity for them [Dennett] |
| 5353 | The self is an abstraction which magnifies important aspects of autobiography [Flanagan] |
| 5354 | We are not born with a self; we develop a self through living [Flanagan] |