The True Self
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I haven’t written here in a while - mostly because I’ve been travelling in the US, but also because I’ve really enjoyed meeting cool people on calls from posting short-form on LinkedIn. I’ve also become much more conscious of how I’m sometimes overly analytical and have tried to reduce the amount of optimising I do and try to find a balance.
I read this thread on a couple of blogs recently and have paraphrased it into something I think is a good summary.
“Because we’re all going to die one day, it almost seems stupid to live your life based on what another person tells you. I think the path to a fulfilled, well-lived life is comprised of consideration of the principles that you always want to live by, and never abating from them no matter what - unless it is you that adapts your principles.”
I wrote this in one of my articles - ambitiously named “The Secret to Life”. My friend who read a draft of this article said that this ‘begs the question of whether ur principles are truly yours or a product of your environment.’
So - is there a true self, or is our judgement determined by our upbringing (which we very much can’t control)?
Perspectivism
There’s this idea of perspectivism I really like that Nietzsche talks about. It’s the idea that ‘truth’ is only one particular perspective on events - a limited, accidental way of seeing the world. How even the things which seem most objective are actually made up of subjective interpretations of the idea.
“Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals follows from this - if each truth is only a particular perspective, then all moral beliefs are only limited points of view. They are tied to specific places and times, making them culturally relative. Consequently, morality has a history. By tracing what Nietzsche calls the genealogy of our moral beliefs, the family tree by which we inherit our ideas, we can uncover how they evolved. We can write the history of why we believe the things we do, as Strauss wrote the heretical history of Christ.”
- A great article I took inspiration from: Shakespeare Contra Nietzsche by Andrew Lanham
Nietzsche accepts the truth of perspectivism, that there is no universal truth. As Hamlet puts it, “there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.”And it’s such an interesting question - does the objective truth exists? Relativism is such an interesting philosophy that I only found out about after reading this article about ideas that Nietzsche put forward.
I think my conclusion is always been that there is no objective truth, but the subjective truth that approaches objectivity, and that ideology shapes reality - with reality shaping ideology.
Perspectivism = different sides of the ‘self’.
Personae
We almost subconsciously (and definitely consciously, at times) present different versions of ourselves to others, depending on our audience. It’s an undeniable part of human nature, furthered by aspects like vocabulary across multilingual speakers, shaped by environments like classrooms or work desks (see Thaler’s ‘Nudge Theory’).
I’m going to be a different persona around my friends, my work colleagues, my high school teachers, my principal, my parents, each of my brothers, the bus driver - whoever it may be. These are all different versions of me, yet they are all still me.
If our representations are always distorted by the persona we are trying to project onto others (or otherwise interpreted by others), what is the true self?
Who are you?
Taking things from first principles, the self is ‘adjusted’ because you want to appear a certain way to a certain audience. So, I think that the true self comes out when you sit down alone, without distraction or responsibility, and think for yourself. When you have no expectations to meet, and no other party that you need to please. When journaling or meditating, when you don’t have an audience, your true self comes out because you can unapologetically be yourself.
Why does this even matter?
I think that people are naturally reactive to their environments. It’s just easier to go with the flow and let life take its course.
But if you don’t keep your true self in check, who are you?
Be conscious of what the true self wants - and what your principles are telling you to do. Otherwise, you live a life dictated by others.
We are always evolving and being molded by our environments. You are not your past self.
Just a different version that has undergone an unfathomable number of iterations.
Remember who you are.
Yurui
PS - My friend Sizhe:
"it's truly powerful when you are able to showcase your perspective on life and attract others with similar ones and influence them and vice versa
that's only rly possible if ur perspective is shown well through ur actions and behaviour
so i guess the different faces we have aren't necessarily NOT ourselves (although sometimes they are), they just happen to be different versions of ourselves that are augmented or modified in some way”
