12-21-2017, 12:00 AM
Le_Regard wrote:
I've thought about this for years, and I think "true self"/"higher self", "false self"/"lower self", is imprecise. You might as well say good self and bad self.
I think "transcendental ego" and "empirical ego" are more precise. The transcendental ego is the absolute subjective self prior to and implied by all experiences, and the empirical ego is the EXPERIENCED you. You as object. What other people see when they look at you, but also the name on your drivers license. Your voting record, your criminal record, your resume.
Another way of saying it is being-in-itself (pure being) and being-for-itself (the being that wants and makes decisions, etc.)
...
Actually "le regard", "the look", is a philosophical term that means the experience of realizing that you are not just SEEING (with your true self), you are also VISIBLE (???).
note: full disclosure I think it USUALLY means how men look at women. It got picked up by feminism obviously, but the existentialist connotations are earlier.
...
Wait, sorry, what is the real meaning of Moby Dick?
True and false self works, because one is real and the other is not. When you're acting "phony" you're showing an expectation or some such thing, you're not acting from your real self. This is the case even if others are not around to witness it, or if you're acting from the false self in a different dream realm.
As to Moby Dick, the real meaning is even when you've got a whale of an appetite, sometimes it's best to just settle for a fillet-o-fish.
Jed on the other hand thinks it's some sort of metaphor for enlightenment, or "truth realization" as he likes to call it. That Ahab was trying to break through all illusion in the form of the white whale to get to truth and that he needed sacrifice everything to do so.
To be fair, Jed probably has spent more time considering this than I have. He explains it in "Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment" bit by bit over the majority of the book. Although I'm teasing it a bit, I would recommend that book pretty highly.
I've thought about this for years, and I think "true self"/"higher self", "false self"/"lower self", is imprecise. You might as well say good self and bad self.
I think "transcendental ego" and "empirical ego" are more precise. The transcendental ego is the absolute subjective self prior to and implied by all experiences, and the empirical ego is the EXPERIENCED you. You as object. What other people see when they look at you, but also the name on your drivers license. Your voting record, your criminal record, your resume.
Another way of saying it is being-in-itself (pure being) and being-for-itself (the being that wants and makes decisions, etc.)
...
Actually "le regard", "the look", is a philosophical term that means the experience of realizing that you are not just SEEING (with your true self), you are also VISIBLE (???).
note: full disclosure I think it USUALLY means how men look at women. It got picked up by feminism obviously, but the existentialist connotations are earlier.
...
Wait, sorry, what is the real meaning of Moby Dick?
True and false self works, because one is real and the other is not. When you're acting "phony" you're showing an expectation or some such thing, you're not acting from your real self. This is the case even if others are not around to witness it, or if you're acting from the false self in a different dream realm.
As to Moby Dick, the real meaning is even when you've got a whale of an appetite, sometimes it's best to just settle for a fillet-o-fish.
Jed on the other hand thinks it's some sort of metaphor for enlightenment, or "truth realization" as he likes to call it. That Ahab was trying to break through all illusion in the form of the white whale to get to truth and that he needed sacrifice everything to do so.
To be fair, Jed probably has spent more time considering this than I have. He explains it in "Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment" bit by bit over the majority of the book. Although I'm teasing it a bit, I would recommend that book pretty highly.