Know Thyself: The Value and Limits of Self-Knowledge takes the reader on tour of the nature, value, and limits of self-knowledge. Mitchell S. Green calls on classical sources like Plato and Descartes, 20th-century thinkers like Freud, recent developments in neuroscience and experimental psychology, and even Buddhist philosophy to explore topics at the heart of who we are. The result is an unvarnished look at both the achievements and drawbacks of the many attempts to better know one’s own self. Key topics in this volume include: Knowledge – what it means to know, the link between wisdom and knowledge, and the value of living an "examined life" Personal identity – questions of dualism (the idea that our mind is not only our brain), bodily continuity, and personhood The unconscious — including the kind posited by psychoanalysis as well as the form proposed by recent research on the so-called adaptive unconscious Free will – if we have it, and the recent arguments from neuroscience challenging it Self-misleading – the ways we willfully deceive ourselves, and how this relates to empathy, peer disagreement, implicit bias, and intellectual humility Experimental psychology – considerations on the automaticity of emotion and other cognitive processes, and how they shape us This book is designed to be used in conjunction with the free ‘Know Thyself’ MOOC (massive open online course) created through collaboration of the University of Connecticut's Project on Humility and Conviction in Public Life, and the University of Edinburgh’s Eidyn research centre, and hosted on the Coursera platform (https://www.coursera.org/learn/know-thyself). The book is also suitable as a text for interdisciplinary courses in the philosophy of mind or self-knowledge, and is highly recommended for anyone looking for a short overview of this fascinating topic.

Know Thyself: An Essay in Social Personalism proposes that social Personalism can best provide for self-knowledge. In the West, self-knowledge has been sought within the framework of two dominant intellectual traditions, order and the emerging self. On the one hand, ancient and medieval philosophers living in an orderly hierarchical society, governed by honor and shame, and bolstered by the metaphysics of being and rationalism, believed persons gain self-knowledge through uniting with the ground of their being; once united they would understand what they are, what they are to be, and what they are to do. On the other hand, Renaissance and modern thinkers such as Pico della Mirandola, Copernicus, Descartes, Locke, and Kant shattered the great achievement of the high middle ages and bequeathed to posterity an emerging self in a splintered world. Continuing their search for self-knowledge, the moderns found themselves faced with the dualism of the emerging self of the Renaissance and the natural world as understood by modern scientists. New problems spun out of this dualism, including the mind-body problem; the other minds problem; free will and determinism; the nature and possibility of social relationships; values, moral norms and their relationship to the natural and social worlds; and the relationships between science and religion. Finding self-knowledge among these splinters without a guiding orientation has proven difficult. Even though luminaries such as Spinoza, Berkeley, and Hegel attempted to bring order to the sundered elements, their attempts proved unsatisfactory. We contend that neither order nor the emerging self can adequately provide for self-knowledge. Since those culturally embodied “master narratives” lead us to an impasse, we turn to social Personalism. Self-knowledge developed in this book shows how persons in relation to the Personal learn who they are, what they are to become, and what they must do to achieve that goal. It also shows that the achievement of self-knowledge is supported by a natural, social, and cultural environment rooted in trust. In this humane and timely discussion, Thomas O. Buford offers a personalist understanding of self-knowledge that avoids the impersonalisms that erode the dignity of persons and their moral life which characterize modern life.

Unlock the secrets to understanding yourself and others with the surprising science of the human mind's greatest power: introspection. “Are you sure?” Whether in a court room, a doctor’s office, a gameshow’s hot seat, or a student’s desk, we are always trying to answer that question. Should we accept eyewitness testimony or a physician’s diagnosis? Do we really want to risk it all on a final question? And what should we be studying in order to do as well as possible on a test? In short, how do we know what we and others know—or as importantly, don’t know? As cognitive neuroscientist Stephen Fleming shows in Know Thyself, we do this with metacognition. Metacognition, or thinking about thinking, is the most important tool we have for understanding our own mind. Metacognition is an awesome power: It is what enables self-awareness as well as what lets us think about the minds of others. It is the ultimate human trait, and in its most rarefied forms is a power that neither other animals, nor our current artificial intelligences, have. Metacognition teaches us the limits of our own knowledge. Once we understand what it is and how it works, we can improve our performance and make better decisions. For example, on the SAT, it helps us gauge when we should skip a question rather than lose points getting an answer wrong. Know Thyself, like the metacognition itself, is equal parts scientific, philosophical, and practical. And that means, like Thinking, Fast and Slow and Predictably Irrational, it’s that rarest of books: one that can both expand our minds and change our lives.

Learn to control your life with this story telling teacher, who offers tales and wisdom shaped by his own difficult life. A life that only started to work when he learnt to trust himself andhis place within the Universe.

‘Man, Know Thyself’ is perhaps one of the world’s oldest and most important sayings. This adage was originally coined by Imhotep the world’s first multi-genius and perhaps the greatest creative mortal individual who ever lived. Imhotep lived over five and a half thousand years ago from our present age. It must be said immediately that Imhotep was an African. He is among our first Notable Ancestors. Considering Imhotep’s instruction, it means that as individuals, as a family, collectively as a people, a community, a society or a nation, we should know ourselves; that is, who we are. This includes knowledge of who spawned us, where we have been and where we currently are. Knowing this, as our Notable Ancestor and Grandmaster Teacher (Baba) Dr John Henrik Clarke has said, will tell us who we are and where we must get to. Who we are is dependent on who we were. Who we were should determine who we should be. To emphasise the point, Marcus Garvey, another of our most important Notable Ancestors, frequently reiterated this advice when he reminded us that our first obligation is to know ourselves. He told us that we should make our knowledge about us so complete so as to make it impossible for others to take advantage of us. He told us that in order to know ourselves we must know who our Ancestors were and what they achieved. We would then realize who we are and what we are capable of achieving. This is the meaning of the African adage and Sankofa symbol of ‘looking back in order to go forward’. The importance of knowing our ancestors has been summed up in an old Native American saying that ‘It is the spirit of our ancestors that should guide our path’. There is a sense however that Africans have forgotten our ancestors. Because of this, there is no ‘spirit’ to guide us and so Africans are lost and confused. The roots of African spirituality and culture have been made redundant. Yet as Dr Clarke points out, the unbilicord that tied Africans to our spiritual and cultural roots have only been stretched. It has never been broken. It is for Africans to come to this realization and to rediscover the spirit of our ancestors. This volume lists some of our Notable Ancestors in the hope that knowledge about them and their achievements will aid some of us in understanding where we have been, who we presently are and consequently who we must become. Ultimately, it is hoped that we may use this knowledge to reconnect with the spirit of our Ancestors and let them be our guide. This volume is based on the ‘truth’ about Africans and therefore correcting what is ‘told’ about us. This ‘corrective knowledge’ of us is important because as Imhotep said; ‘Know the truth and the truth shall set you free’. This means being free to interpret our own story and to define who we are. This is crucial because although ‘history’ is a witness to the truths, ‘history’ has been ‘stolen’ by others who have hidden the truths about us. ‘History’ has never been true or kind to Africans and therefore it cannot tell us about us. Yet as Peter Tosh intimated, we cannot come to a consciousness of ourselves, of who we are, if we do not know the truths about us. ‘History’ has been described as the ‘Queen’ of the academic subjects. So important is History that it is said that ‘whoever controls history, controls the future’. In one sense education in general and history in particular is about teaching us who we are. History teaches who we are so as to help us to know where we belong in our community (or society). Africans cannot know where we belong in society however, because our story has been told by ‘others’ (those who ‘own history’). Africans are therefore unaware of who we are because what is ‘known’ about us is not the truth about us. The story of Africans, the oldest people on earth, like the history of the world, is taught by ‘others’. Yet these others came into the world thousands of years after Africans had already established great civ

This book is the last of a series of five inspired on the failure of Absurd (Twenty-first Century) Socialism in Venezuela. It proposes a framework to describe sociopolitical systems and the influence of ideology. You can know yourself ideologically using the questions proposed in the book.

Learn to live a life without limits! For years, the August Institute of Life Studies has introduced new techniques for self-improvement to people all over the world… people just like you! CEOs, sports figures, movie stars and political leaders have gained the tools and abilities to achieve success, power and fulfillment in every aspect of their lives. Now, Dr. August, the founder and president of the August Institute, shares with you his incredible secrets for accomplishing goals and experiencing personal breakthroughs – right now! Learn how to break free of your old routines, and stop living your life by a “script”; achieve personal growth and recognize the potential for greatness within yourself; reject the limitations of your past while exploring the possibilities of your future; and discover the powers that you possess to change your life forever! You have the ability to become the person you’ve always dreamed of being. Now it’s time to stop dreaming your life and start living your dreams!

Presented in the most lucid style, the purpose of the book is not merely to know the characteristics of the self. It is also to find out about the truth of existence and beyond death,as well as to learn the process to knowledge. Only then the individual would discover the reasons for his selfishness, hatred, anger, fear that he cradles everyday in his life. The issue to have the knowledge of the `self` is very obscure. Yet the ideas presented in the book are not only inspirational but also introspective and embody the qualitative rational techniques to reach higher recesses of consciousness and soul-realization. The book is captivating as examples from real-life situations have been quoted to explain what is the nature of the Self and how it can transcend to tranquillity, peace and permanent bliss. Some Glimpses: *Do not do unto others what you do not want others to do unto you *The Western point of view about Self--Greek Ideas, European Contention and Five Theories of Mind *The Eastern Approach--Vedantic conception, Gita`s mantras, Jiva as a conscious substance *Western dilemma and the Eastern approach--concept of unity and the quest for unity #v&spublishers