Feeling Ego and Feeling Others

● Essay on Feeling Ego and Feeling Others:

• Does self-knowledge depend on awareness, or is it linked to the existence of the other?

● Pose the problem:

Man is a civil being by nature, he lives with other people in interaction, integration, attraction and repulsion. And in this movement, he obtains the awareness of himself, and at the same time he is distinguished from them. Hence a controversy arose between two positions from the philosophers, a position that sees the self-perception of itself dependent on feeling, while the other position sees that awareness takes place through contrast and contradiction, and from here we ask: Does self-knowledge lie in what others see in us or in what we see in ourselves? Or in other words: Does self-knowledge depend on the existence of others or on awareness?

● Try to solve the problem:

1~ First position:

The proponents of the first position, led by those with an intuitive tendency, including: Socrates, Bergson, Descartes and de Piran,... that consciousness is the basis of self-knowledge, as long as it is subjective and the subject to be known is the self, and therefore no one else has any involvement in self-knowledge. Socrates says: "Know yourself by yourself."

Just as man is not a mass of instincts as is the case with an animal, rather he is a being conscious of his actions through him that senses what is in himself of thoughts, emotions and memories and with awareness he knows that he exists, has a past and a future, and that the world exists around him as well, as the French philosopher Descartes proves that consciousness is the basis Knowing the self through thinking by saying: “I think, therefore I am.” All mental processes of imagination, meditation, doubt,... are forms of thinking that the soul does not stop from as long as it requires the existence of the self.

The philosopher Bergson also stresses that intuition is a means that allows the self to represent itself mentally to see itself by itself and get to know it. As a person can know himself by means of introspection (self-reflection), which is an internal observation of what is happening in the soul, whereby a person turns into a witness to himself and knows that he has a real self with which he appears in front of people that differs from them physically, psychologically and morally.

The French philosopher Maine de Biran also stresses that a feeling is always a feeling of something and that a feeling is only if the self exists, so he says: "Before any feeling of something, the self must exist." The French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre emphasized this by saying: "Feeling is always feeling something, and it can only be conscious of itself."

•criticism:

But consciousness as the founder of the ego may make a person fall into a fallacy with himself, as the essence that his consciousness forms around it is deceptive, and this was confirmed by Plato through the “myth of the cave” by saying: “What our consciousness presents to us are nothing but shadows and behind it hide our reality as beings.” Spinoza also emphasized that consciousness is an illusion and a fallacy, so people's belief in the independence of their actions is a false belief because they are not aware of the power of their desires, as they do not know anything about the reasons that control them, like a drunkard who is delusional that he is speaking with a free command of his mind about those matters that he would like to not say anything about when awake. Actually under the influence of alcohol.

2~Second position:

Rationalist philosophers, especially Jean Paul Sartre, Berkeley, Hegel, see that self-knowledge depends on contrast and contrast. They relied on the following arguments and evidence:

Jean-Paul Sartre believes that the social environment in which man lives and interacts with is what enables him to know himself, by being different from others. The condition of my existence and a condition of my knowing myself.” That is, the existence of the other is necessary.

Just as measuring ourselves with others acquaints us with our shortcomings, flaws and advantages, the presence of others is presented to us by John Paul Sartre through the example of the mutual view between the ego and the other, while the person alone acts spontaneously, and as soon as he notices the presence of someone watching him, his movements and actions freeze and he loses spontaneity and spontaneity.

Watson believes that extrapolating the human relationship with others proves that society has an active role in organizing the activity of the individual and his upbringing from the first sight. Dor Kayem says: "The individual is the son of his environment and a mirror that reflects the image of his society. It is not possible to identify himself except through his integration into society and his contact with others." We recognize the ego through coexistence with others. If the individual lived isolated on a remote island, he would not know anything about himself, and this confirms the role of the other and others in self-knowledge for itself.

•criticism:

It is true that a person lives with other people, but they only know the external appearances. As for the feelings and tendencies within us, they cannot know them. A person can fabricate external appearances, as is the case with an actor who fabricates certain situations that are completely different from the reality of himself.

3~ Installation:

As a combination between the two positions, it can be said that self-knowledge does not stop at the ego only, but that the existence of the other is also necessary for understanding the self. Attempting to achieve self-knowledge, and this is what the Arab thinker Lahbabi expressed by saying: “Self-knowledge lies in the person being satisfied with himself as he is within this relationship. “The ego is part of the we” in this world.

According to my personal opinion, the most correct opinion is the one that asserts that self-knowledge depends on awareness, because the self is aware of itself by itself. Husserl says in this regard: “I feel, therefore I am.”

● Problem Solving:

A person’s sense of himself depends on knowing others as beings worthy of cohabitation, respect, and acclamation, and what is different from them if it is necessary to establish the self and confirm its privacy, it is not complete and does not flourish until the presence of others and working with them in the light of cooperation , In order for the self to recognize itself, it must be conscious on the one hand, and be surrounded and present in the middle of the group on the other

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