Once I Was: A Philosophical Excursion into the Metaphors of the Mind

Abstract

I might set as the objective in this stage of my journey, its philosophical goal, an outlining, an account, of an autobiographical “Bildungsnovelle” – perhaps one might speak of a narrative journey into the self. The notion of a Novelle, of course, suggests an attempt at predictive accuracy, and here it must be acknowledged that the future can hold surprises, turns one cannot expect. If I were to read someone else’s account of my alter ego’s life I might not be able to accept everything it brought out. My memory might be selective; or that other narrator’s perceptions might be too bogged down in subjective premisses of his own. What further complicates the matter is the requirement that this account be written prospectively, that it map out things to come (Translated by Robert MacGilleon).