Jeff Wang Blog

Daily blog post 301

I am taking a course this semester called “Human Person”

I am the only non-humanities major in the class, and thus the only business student. In fact, because this course is outside of my major, I had to override the application to get in. But when I read the course description, where the thesis is “what does it mean to be human?“, I just had to sign up.

Today we discussed a short topic: How do we know oneself?

We see ourselves the most–in mirrors, pictures, reflections. We spend the most time with our own body, yet why is it that we know more about the physics of the world and how gravity works, or the formula of combustion in chemistry, or how a basketball should spin off the backboard to go into the hoop?

When we take photos, we immediately divert our eyes towards ourselves, thinking, “that is me, but it also doesn’t look like me.” We often hate our own voice recording, thinking “that’s not what I sound like, is it?”

The issue is that we only see ourselves through a distorted lens. What other people see is not what we see. We can never “size” our own body up, not like a stranger can while passing down the street and judge our physical aspects. We will only ever see ourselves through reflections. It’s true that if you were to see yourself walking down the street, you wouldn’t recognize yourself immediately because you’d have to readjust your perspective. A mirror is not an accurate representation of your body, neither is a photo, and neither is a voice recording.

So, do we truly know ourselves?