In the articleat hand the author extensively tries to determine how true self is portrayed ina human being. On one hand he examines a concept endorsed by numerous differentphilosophers that the urges and emotions a human being feels don’t determinewho that person truly is and that the nature of the person is truly determinedby the moments he stops to think and reflect about their deepest values. On theother hand he examines the views of people outside the field of philosophy whosuggest that true self is determined by our suppressed urges and emotions andthat our ability to reflect is just a hindrance to our true self’s expression. The author however has a completelydifferent concept to the matter of true self.
He points out that neither of thetwo perspectives captures the concept of true self. He points out that theproblem with the two concepts is that they assume that true self can beidentified with one particular part of a person’s psychology. He goes on topoint out that peoples understanding of true self involves a judgment aboutwhat sort of lives are worth living. To support his point of view, hefirst acknowledges that the two presumptions above don’t make sense as to thesituation at hand because the two ideologies differ greatly reasons beingpeople are brought up with different mindsets.
He goes further with his friendsto conduct a philosophical experiment by collecting people’s views on thesubject matter. He took two sets of people; conservatives and liberals and gavethem a test on the subject matter with questions which would suit their way ofthinking. The conservatives ended up answering the questions in a manner thatwould satisfy their conservative items while the liberals answered thequestions in a manner that would satisfy their conservative items.
The author presents a strongargument when he concludes that finding one’s true self cannot be determined bythe two approaches in the above paragraphs. This is a topic that poses to bevery sensitive hence a definite approach should be determined, one approachthat can with no doubt be trusted. The author proposes that further research becarried out to determine the proper hypothesis to be used in determining one’strue self. Works Cited Knobe, Joshua. In Search of the True Self.
5 June 2011. Web page.