I pulled out my copy of "Socrates Café" by Christopher Phillips for inspiration for tonight's discussion topic. If you have not added this book to your library, you should. It is a well written book on many philosophical topics, and it presents the information in a very accessible way.
Socrates famously said, "Know thyself", which has been expanded into, "An unexamined life is not worth living." Phillips has a short section titled, "Know thyself at thine own risk", in which he recounts an evening's discussion with Café attendees on this very topic. One attendee contends that a person can really only come to know who they genuinely are while in some kind of crisis. Everyday living, he says, does not give us the insight we needed to know who we fundamentally are. Phillips counters that it would be necessary for the group to agree on a workable definition of crisis, if this were true, and perhaps everyday life provides many sorts of crises that could provide the insight needed.
In the back of my mind I'm thinking that there are certainly life-changing crises we face not on a daily basis, but perhaps only several times in our lives, that put who were are to the test, in some way. In other words, I like the basic idea of a "crucible of fire" sort of crisis revelation of who we fundamentally are, but is that the only way it might happen? Don't we learn about ourselves without crisis? Or are we simply not paying attention?
Do you know who you are? Are you living your life in harmony with your inner self? This line of thinking evokes the Becoming and Being discussions we have had in the past. Become who you are. Life is a process of Becoming, with the goal of eventually Being, or living in harmony with your genuine self.
How do you get to the point where you know who you are? Philosophy, of course.
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