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Do the Impossible: Know Thyself - New English Review

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Saved by 7 people (-1 private), first by anonymouse user on 2007-03-08


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In my opinion, the great philosopher David Hume understood why human self-understanding was forever beyond our reach. It is not a coincidence that he always expressed himself with irony, for the deepest irony possible is that of the existence of a creature, Man, who forever seeks something that is beyond his understanding.

Hume was simultaneously a figure of the enlightenment and the anti-enlightenment. He saw that reason and consideration of the evidence are all that a rational man can rely upon, yet they are eternally insufficient for Man as he is situated. In short, there cannot be such a thing as the wholly rational man. Reason, he said, is the slave of the passions; and in addition, no statement of value follows logically from any statement of fact. But we cannot live without evaluations.

Ergo, self-understanding is not around the corner and never will be. We shall never be able seamlessly to join knowledge and action. To which I add, not in any religious sense: thank God.

Highlighted by robertg69

The fact is that, however many factors you examine, you cannot fully explain behaviour, not even relatively simple behaviour.

Highlighted by rgarns

already been answered

Highlighted by rgarns

Two main questions arose in my mind during the neuropsychiatric conference. The first was whether any scientific self-understanding was possible. The second was whether, if possible, it was desirable. My answer to both questions was, and is, no.

Highlighted by rgarns

difficult even to conceive of what a scientific self-understanding would actually be like

Highlighted by rgarns

How does one develop a universal law that explains an infinite number of unique events that are infused with meaning and intentionality?

Highlighted by rgarns

Nothing is important or significant but conscious thinking makes it so: the type of thinking, moreover, that employs moral categories that are inherently non-natural.

Highlighted by rgarns

Do the Impossible: Know Thyself by Theodore Dalrymple (March 2007) I attended a fascinating conference on neuropsychiatry recently. Neuroscience, it seems to me, is the current most hopeful candidate for the role of putative but delusory answer to all Mankind's deepest questions: what is Man's place in Nature, and how should he live. What is the good life, at least in the western world?

Highlighted by moosbruxxer

Do the Impossible: Know Thyself by Theodore Dalrymple (March 2007) I attended a fascinating conference on neuropsychiatry recently. Neuroscience, it seems to me, is the current most hopeful candidate for the role of putative but delusory answer to all Mankind's deepest questions: what is Man's place in Nature, and how should he live. What is the good life, at least in the western world?

Highlighted by moosbruxxer