Self and Self-Presentation

07 December 2015

This week, we’re asking about Self and Self-Presentation. On the surface, these may seem like two different topics. Questions about the nature of the self are questions of metaphysics. When we ask such questions we want to know what exactly a self is and what distinguishes one self from another. On the other hand, when we talk self-presentation, we seem to be talking psychology or politics or marketing. Self-presentation has to do with how people present themselves to others. It’s not about who or what a person really is in and of herself, independently of how she is perceived by others.

Now talking about how a person is in and of herself, independently of how she perceived has a vaguely Cartesian feel. But Descartes believed lots of weird things about the self. He believed, for example, that there are thinking self-knowing immaterial souls. He probably would have wanted to identify the self with the soul. I want no part of that kind of view. Still it’s worth wondering about what we might call the radical interiority of the self -- something that you don’t have to be a Cartesian immaterialist to believe in. This is the view not just that the self is a thing unto itself, with a nature independent of how it is perceived, but also that, in good Cartesian fashion, the self knows its own nature directly and incorrigibly. Now I’m not sure I believe in the radical interiority of the self. Indeed, I suspect that others may sometimes be in a better position to see us more clearly than we perceive ourselves. I wouldn’t go quite so far as to say that for the self to be is to be perceived -- though I wouldn’t want to deny it completely either. There is some truth to the claim that to being a self is inextricably bound up with presentation to others.

George Herbert Mead makes a distinction that is useful in this context. He distinguishes what he calls the “me” from what he calls the “I.” The “me” is what others treat me as, what I am to others, that is, how the represent me. The “I,” on the other hand, is the inner self that responds to others and their representations of me. Now Mead doesn’t claim that there is sharp or unbridgeable boundary between me and the I. A whole self is some sort of fusion of the me and the I, on his view.

用米德的话来说,一个人是由"我"和"我"组成的这一观点,在我看来是正确的。想想我们必须在各种不同的环境中展现自己——工作场所、政治舞台、家庭、社交媒体。根据不同的语境,我们揭示和隐藏不同的事物。在每一种情况下,我们都表现出自己的不同方面。但这些自我展示似乎都不会耗尽我们的本性。似乎,在一个人如何被呈现或被感知与一个人“在她自身中”是什么之间,总是有一个差距。

The problem is that is not exactly clear what to make of the idea that there is something that a person is “in and of herself” independently of how she is perceived or presented. Ask yourself where can you even get a glimpse of the tue self? Where can you observe it raw, unfiltered, and unadulterated? Do you retreat to a desert island? Do you peer incessantly at your own navel?

要开始理解为什么这个问题是一个困难而有趣的问题,它将有助于区分社会认同和个人认同。假设我们问,是什么让肯·泰勒在不同的时间和地点再次被视为同一个人。这是个关于人格同一性的问题。人格同一性不依赖于任何社会因素。肯·泰勒,一个人在荒岛上,周围没有人能认出他,他还是肯·泰勒。相比之下,社会身份与你和/或其他人识别你的社会显著标记有关。这些标记为你的行为和选择赋予意义和社会意义。这是你社会身份的一部分,你是非裔美国异性恋哲学家,终身民主。

But now think about how the fats about personal identity constrain facts about social identities. At first blush, the facts about personal identity would seem to constrain the facts about social identity hardly at all. I could surely be the very same me – in the sense of personal identity – even if my social identity were very different. That is, even if I were not a not a straight, American, democrat, I would still be the one and only Ken Taylor. Admittedly some elements of my social identity seem more tightly constrained by the facts that make me the person that I am. It’s a little more ambiguous, at least, whether I could be the very same person if I weren’t a male or a person of color.

现在考虑下面的问题。当我们谈论所谓的真实自我时我们谈论的是社会认同层面的东西还是个人认同层面的东西?假设真实的自我是社会性的。那么它不是必然是可变的和多重的吗?但是,这些多变多样的社会身份中,怎么会有一个比其他任何一个都更有资格成为真正的我呢?另一方面,如果我们得出这样的结论:真正的自我不是社会性的,而是先于所有的社会性身份的,你可能会担心它会变成一个空壳,没有任何内容,因此无法提供任何具体的指导,关于一个人在社会世界中要做什么或要做什么。

I think you can see where this is leading. The tempting next step is to conclude that the so-called real self is just philosopher’s fiction or that the self is little more than an arbitrary bundle of poses and personas that you put on and take off at will. That’s a very post-modern idea and I’m not at all sure that I feel comfortable going that far. But I do have to admit that the self is at least a tiny bit elusive. Do you agree?

Photo byNadine ShaabanaonUnsplash

Comments(10)


Gary M Washburn's picture

Gary M Washburn

Tuesday, December 8, 2015 -- 4:00 PM

Descartes was a man of his

笛卡尔是他那个时代的人。生命的巨大链条在很大程度上仍然是思想的秩序,现象世界几乎还没有进入人们的视野。这个问题是在它自己的时间里提出的。听起来“人”是企业审查的问题,就像商业提案或“招股说明书”一样!我们如何表现自己并不代表我们是谁,除非你指的是我忽略的细节。我们一遍又一遍地犯同样的错误,把本体论当成量词。没有“是”任何东西的枚举器。形而上学的是枚举者,现象的是枚举者。但两者本身都不完全,彼此也不完全。量化的逻辑一直争论不休,直到它作为最严格的术语失去了枚举器。 That loss is not this one or that one, not a determination which one is which or an aggregation of unifying attributes (the monad). It is the act of that extremity of reason where the enumerator is lost to it. That act is what person is. The most extensive term of time is that rigor entailing that loss, but the act of that loss itself is the characterology (the dynamic of an unstable conviction) of that entailment. That is, the conceit of the logical comprehension of the quantifier, of inference by extension of antecedence, and therefore that time is completed only by extension, is most extensive entailing that most rigorous term the lost enumerator is. But the act itself, and what person is, is the moment of that loss. Moment that differs all extension, and is there the most comprehensive term. Person is not a corporate property, nor a private 'presentation'. Actually, as act, it is more like absence, absence that remains only as responsibility of the worth of its loss being recognized. A conviction of person as presence or presentation commits us to irresponsibility.

MJA's picture

MJA

Tuesday, December 8, 2015 -- 4:00 PM

如何找到自我?that is

如何找到自我?这就是问题所在。如果我可以建议:去一趟乌尔姆,爬进一个炉子里,把自己变成我,呆在那里,直到你完全掌握了一切。如果乌尔姆是不可能的,那就顺流而下,走向自然,走向你自己,因为一切的真理,包括“我”或“自己”,你自己也可以在那里找到。如果那时附近没有河,那就试着放弃你所拥有的一切和你所知道的,坐在树下,等我来找你。如果没有树可以坐在下面,那么就跟随光,在问题或怀疑的灰色地带之外是绝对的,一个人真正自我的应许之地。如果你看不见那道光,那就跟着自己的心走,心是真实的。是真实的。我建议科学,但光速可能会阻碍你。还有上帝,嗯,一个人也能在那里找到我,除非你迷失其中。 Try mathematics, I can be found in an equation. As for Justice, I am at the center of her scale. And if all else fails then ask yourself what is the measure of you? The answer is truly immeasurable. I can be found in all of the above, in everything, in you. =

Gary M Washburn's picture

Gary M Washburn

Wednesday, December 9, 2015 -- 4:00 PM

Johann Gambolputty de von

Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern Schplenden Schlitter Crass Cren Bon Fried Digger Dingle Dangle Dongle Dungle Burstein von Knacker Trasher Apple Banger Horowitz Ticolensic Grander Knotty Spelltinkle Grandlich Grumblemeyer Spelter Wasser Kürstlich Himble Eisenbahnwagen Gutenabend Bitte einen Nürnburger Bratwürstel Gespurten mit Zweimache Luber Hundsfut Gumberaber Schönendanker Ulm的Kalbsfleisch Mittelraucher von Hauptkopft ?

MJA's picture

MJA

Wednesday, December 9, 2015 -- 4:00 PM

The people of Ulm are

乌尔姆的人民是数学家。=

Gary M Washburn's picture

Gary M Washburn

Thursday, December 10, 2015 -- 4:00 PM

All of them? Always? If so,

All of them? Always? If so, they competently use the sign '=' with the full implication of the unequal.

Harold G. Neuman's picture

Harold G. Neuman

Thursday, December 10, 2015 -- 4:00 PM

I'll opine that variability

I'll opine that variability and multiplicity are just the ticket. Our interpersonal relationships are in frequent fluctuation because of the various and multiplicious scenarios we participate in almost daily. We present facades for each situation, responsibility and audience we encounter. It is this adaptability that best ensures our successes (or failures) as human beings because we can be, yea, must be different things to different people. But, well, Ken Taylor is Ken Taylor. He is interested in what makes us tick. And he has already suggested in this post the essence of what is being opined in these brief comments. We all have social identities we amend as our situational roles change. And each of us has a personal identity, known mostly to ourselves and to the occasional individual whom we trust. And to whom we are not beholden for a paycheck or some other creature comfort that we do not wish to live without. We are chameleons--and good at it. Well, during moments of success anyway.
Neuman

Zeneth Culture's picture

Zeneth Culture

Friday, December 11, 2015 -- 4:00 PM

?Some people do what they

?Some people do what they love. Some do it by default. Some do it by
knowing. Some people do what they don?t love. Some do it by default.
有些人是通过认知来做到的。What if you had the ability to know and do
what you love??
正如苏格拉底所说的“认识你自己”。
Stanley Tsiamoulis' words of wisdom.

Gary M Washburn's picture

Gary M Washburn

Tuesday, December 15, 2015 -- 4:00 PM

It was Delphi, not Socrates.

It was Delphi, not Socrates. The oracle was warning us that interpretation can go disastrously wrong if the inquirer doesn't know who he is and what and why he is really seeking the word of the oracle. Socrates was told there that no one was wiser, but he spent his life proving that this only meant he knew nothing and knew that he knew nothing. Plato spent his career proving that this is more meaningful than all the pretenses to knowing ourselves and the world that we get up to, with more or less conviction.

elmapeter099's picture

elmapeter099

Wednesday, December 30, 2015 -- 4:00 PM

A great part of the

A great part of the examination on the self,has concentrated on the significance of self-regard. In spite of the fact that this property of the self is of awesome centrality in comprehension the self, it might be addressed in the event that it is the most critical. This article will talk about the significance of self-presentation as one of the numerous properties of self.website

anastasiahall's picture

anastasiahall

Tuesday, April 26, 2016 -- 5:00 PM

From being in your post, the

From being in your post, the most spirited act is still to think for you. Clothes mean nothing until someone lives in them. We must never confound classiness with condescension. Chris Jericho y2j light Leather Jacket