Philosophical Self-Knowledge - Donald Phillip Verene Kartoniert (TB)

The inscription on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi Gnothi seauton (Know thyself) is taken up by Socrates and pursued as the center of philosophy. Self-knowledge is the theme that endures throughout the history of philosophy. It is a theme that philosophy shares with literature. We know ourselves to be human but the question remains as to what it means to be human. What we are is a metaphysical and ethical problem. Satire shows us how others see us. Memory the mother of the Muses gives us access to see ourselves as we have been are now and may be in the future. This work considers the ide a of satire through the writings of Aristophanes Lucian Erasmus Rabelais Swift Voltaire and Joyce. It examines the nature of memory in terms of the views of Hesiod Plato Aristotle Camillo Vico Hegel and Joyce. Attention to Joyce in both instances is to Finnegans Wake. The author invites readers to take up the question of self-knowledge to pursue it further in their own terms and sources.