Who One Is

by Hart, J. G.

• ISBN13: 9789048180851
• ISBN10: 9048180856
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-05-08
• Publisher: Springer Nature

Summary

If I am asked in the framework of Book 1, '¬SWho are you?'¬ I, in answering, might say '¬SI don'¬"t know who in the world I am.'¬ Nevertheless there is a sense in which I always know what '¬SI'¬ refers to and can never not know, even if I have become, e.g., amnesiac. Yet in Book 2, '¬SWho are you?'¬ has other senses of oneself in mind than the non-sortal '¬Smyself'¬. For example, it might be the pragmatic context, as in a bureaucratic setting; but '¬SWho are you?'¬ or '¬SWho am I?'¬ might be more anguished and be rendered by '¬SWhat sort of person are you?'¬ or '¬SWhat sort am I?'¬ Such a question often surfaces in the face of a '¬Slimit-situation'¬, such as one'¬"s death or in the wake of a shameful deed where we are compelled to find our '¬Scenters'¬, what we also will call '¬SExistenz'¬. '¬SExistenz'¬ here refers to the center of the person. In the face of the limit-situation one is called upon to act unconditionally in the determination of oneself and one'¬"s being in the world.In this Book 2 we discuss chiefly one'¬"s normative personal-moral identity which stands in contrast to the transcendental I where one'¬"s non-sortal unique identity is given from the start. This moral identity requires a unique self-determination and normative self-constitution which may be thought of with the help of the metaphor of '¬Svocation'¬. We will see that it has especial ties to one'¬"s Existenz as well as to love. This Book 2 claims that the moral-personal ideal sense of who one is is linked to the transcendental who through a notion of entelechy. The person strives to embody the I-ness that one both ineluctably is and which, however, points to who one is not yet and who one ought to be. The final two chapters tell a philosophical-theological likely story of a basic theme of Plotinus: We must learn to honor ourselves because of our honorable kinship and lineage '¬SYonder'¬.