Self-Knowledge and Pessimism

Abstract

To achieve self-knowledge, Ilham Dilman tells us, is to ‘emerge from naivety, innocence, falsity, a purely habitual existence, or one in which we are largely what others expect us to be, to “become” authentic or true’ (p. 205).¹ This knowledge of oneself is not there, ready made, waiting to be discovered. On the contrary, it can only emerge as a result of the development Dilman refers to. What he means by self-knowledge, however, is more than knowing the kind of person one is. He says, ‘It goes beyond recognizing one’s capacities, inclinations and vulnerabilities. It involves taking an attitude towards them and determining one’s course in life’ (p. 206). What does such an attitude and determination involve? First, it involves being realistic about oneself, about one’s capacities and limitations, the claims of one’s past, one’s present commitments and one’s future possibilities. Second, it involves a form of self-acceptance which is different from being resigned to what one is like:

It is a recognition and acceptance of what are possibilities for one, as these are delimited by one’s sex, the accidents of one’s birth, one’s early experiences, one’s physical make-up, health and innate talents, the choices one has already made and commitments one has undertaken. To recognize and, if need be, to reconcile oneself to these, to develop one’s interests within the limits set by them, to make one’s own the obligations they create for one within the parameters of one’s convictions, is for a person to accept himself (p. 207).