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One of the downsides of writing about self-knowledge is having to explain yourself to the philosophically uninitiated. Flights and dinner parties are usually where this happens, and the problem you face isn’t the usual one. It’s not that self-knowledge strikes people as being too boring or weird or recherché to be worthy of philosophical attention. Far from it. Self-knowledge as a philosophical topic sounds, as one tires of being told, fascinating. Indeed, it’s just the sort of subject which non-philosophers expect philosophers to be interested in.
The disappointment sets in when the time comes to try to explain what philosophers these days mean by ‘self-knowledge’. You might try saying this: self-knowledge, as many philosophers nowadays understand it, is first and foremost knowledge of one’s own states of mind, that is, knowledge of such things as one’s own beliefs, desires, and sensations. In the interests of clarity, you might add that the states of mind that are at issue here needn’t be particularly deep or elusive or important. Suppose you believe that you are wearing socks and know that this is what you believe. What philosophers of self-knowledge typically focus on is this kind of seemingly trivial or easy self-knowledge. Of course they don’t claim that this is all there is to self-knowledge. There is also knowledge of your deepest desires, hopes, and fears, knowledge of your character, emotions, abilities, and values, and knowledge of what makes you happy. These are examples of what you might call substantial self-knowledge, but you have to admit that substantial self-knowledge, for all its undoubted human interest, isn’t where the philosophical action is. What philosophers find interesting isn’t how you can know your own character or abilities but much more mundane examples of self-knowledge such as your knowledge that you believe you are wearing socks or that you want to have ice cream for pudding.
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