Self-Knowledge

The self can be studied: self-portrait and examen

• Montaigne (montaigne) — I myself am the subject of my study and the matter of my book: paint the passage, admit the contradiction, judge yourself by pieces. Grounding: ya-sam-predmet-izucheniya, zhivopis-perekhoda, sudi-o-cheloveke-po-kuskam.
• Franklin (franklin) — the evening examination of the day and the account of the virtues: mistakes are errata, to be corrected, not mourned. Grounding: daily-examination, errata, virtue-chart.
• Ignatius of Loyola (ignatius) — examination of conscience and discernment of spirits: judge a thought by its trajectory — beginning, middle, end. Grounding: ispytanie-sovesti, razlichenie-dukhov, sudi-pomysel-po-traektorii.
• Confucius (confucius) — the superior man seeks within himself, the mean man seeks in others; daily self-examination is the way of the learner. Grounding: junzi, samovospitanie, xue.

The self is known by the deed, not by introspection

• Goethe (goethe) — know yourself by doing: not by contemplation but by meeting the claims of the day. Grounding: poznavay-sebya-delom, trebovanie-dnya.
• Adler (adler) — a person is read by his goal and his style of life: what decides is not the fact of a biography but its interpretation. Grounding: stil-zhizni, teleologiya-psikhiki, vazhno-istolkovanie-a-ne-fakt.
• Tolstoy (tolstoy) — the first condition of self-knowledge is not to lie to yourself; a bad life shuts out the truth more surely than bad logic. Grounding: ne-lgi-sebe-dazhe-radi-svyatyni, durnaya-zhizn-zakryvaet-istinu.
• Laozi (laozi) — he who knows others is wise, he who knows himself is enlightened; he who overcomes himself is strong. Grounding: samopoznanie, zhizu.

Introspection is unreliable

• La Rochefoucauld (larochefoucauld) — we are disguised from ourselves: the inspector of motives is a party to the case, and the self is known from deeds and from chance. Grounding: my-zamaskirovany-ot-samikh-sebya, samoobman, anatomiya-samolyubiya.
• Nietzsche (nietzsche) — every philosophy is the involuntary confession of its author; depth requires the mask, and a direct self-report is naivety. Grounding: filosofiya-kak-ispoved, glubina-trebuet-maski, maska-i-glubina.
• Pascal (pascal) — man flees from himself into diversion because he cannot bear the truth about his condition. Grounding: begstvo-ot-sebya, divertissement, begstvo-i-pravda-o-sebe.

Axis of dispute: La Rochefoucauld against Montaigne and Franklin —
self-observation as self-deception against self-portrait and account-keeping;
Goethe and Adler against introspection as such — the self is read by deed and
goal; Pascal against all the calm methods — first stop running.