Know thyself

The phrase "know thyself” was used by the philosopher Socrates who taught that: "The unexamined life is not worth living." Many other thinkers have given alternative meanings. Much hangs on how we understand “knowing” and the “self”.

Eagleman adds new light from the perspective of brain science:

“Your consciousness is like a tiny stowaway on a transatlantic steamship, taking credit for the journey without acknowledging the massive engineering underfoot.”

“The job of a headline is to give a tightly compressed summary. In the same manner, consciousness is a way of projecting all the activity in your nervous system into a simpler form.”

“By the same token, to know oneself may require a change of definition of “to know.” Knowing yourself now requires the understanding that the conscious you occupies only a small room in the mansion of the brain, and that it has little control over the reality constructed for you. The invocation to know thyself needs to be considered in new ways.”

Eagleman, David. Incognito: The Secret Lives of The Brain