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Single Idea 5648

[filed under theme 16. Persons / E. Rejecting the Self / 2. Self as Social Construct ]

Full Idea

Hegel tries to show that knowledge of self as subject presupposes not just knowledge of objects, but knowledge of a public social world, in which there is moral order and civic trust.

Gist of Idea

For Hegel knowledge of self presupposes objects, and also a public and moral social world

Source

report of Georg W.F.Hegel (Phenomenology of Spirit [1807]) by Roger Scruton - Short History of Modern Philosophy Ch.12

Book Ref

Scruton,Roger: 'A Short History of Modern Philosophy' [ARK 1985], p.177

A Reaction

This is not far off Wittgenstein's private language argument. It is also Popper's 'World Three', of society and language. Human reality is incomprehensible without some recognition of the culture in which we immerse, like fish in water.

The 13 ideas with the same theme [we see ourselves totally through social influences]:

5648 For Hegel knowledge of self presupposes objects, and also a public and moral social world [Hegel, by Scruton]
22788 A human only become a somebody as a member of a social estate [Hegel]
22792 Individuals attain their right by discovering their self-consciousness in institutions [Hegel]
22598 The authentic self exists at the level of class, rather than the individual [Marx, by Dunt]
20368 There are no 'individual' persons; we are each the sum of humanity up to this moment [Nietzsche]
8044 Goffman sees the self as no more than a peg on which to hang roles we play [Goffman, by MacIntyre]
7422 A subject is a form which can change, in (say) political or sexual situations [Foucault]
7386 Selves are not soul-pearls, but artefacts of social processes [Dennett]
18658 The 'Kantian' self steps back from commitment to its social situation [Kymlicka]
4939 A sense of self begins either internally, or externally through language and society [Edelman/Tononi]
10349 To be considered 'an individual' is performed by a society [Kusch]
5502 Locke's intrinsic view of personal identity has been replaced by an externalist view [Martin/Barresi]
20942 Nazis think race predetermines the self [Bowie]