Know Thyself VI: A Summary

7 April 2021

Heraclitus won my respect years ago.  We never step into the same river twice.  Anyone who could conceive of that poetic axiom had something going on.  And despite the fact that we only have fragments of his obscurely expressed thought, he didn’t stop there.  He was the guy who said that Character is fate.  And while both of the foregoing expressions are attributed to him, philosophy has taught me that it always pays to go back to the source.

If we accept that character is fate, we accept a more unlockable and inevitable unfolding than Heraclitus may have intended.  In Greek, the expression is êthos anthrôpôi daimôn. Most of those roots will be familiar: ethos – ethics, culture, one’s nature; anthro—human; and, daimon or spirit.  The full translation is The character of man is his guardian spirit. (B119) (Graham, “Heraclitus”, SEP.)  The difference between those two interpretations, Character is fate versus The character of man is his guardian spirit is the space Aristotle (and others) occupied to introduce ethics, the study of the good and how to attain it.

In the last five blogs I have tried to understand and explain the importance of the Delphic inscription, Know Thyself, through Aristotle’s desire to understand.  Below is a description of the essence of each of those subjects:

1. We must know why a thing is to understand how we relate to it and its role in our lives e.g., intoxication.
2. We must acknowledge the mind’s capacity to understand: Choice, habituation, movement, moderated virtue = character.
3. The worldly role of humanity’s desire to understand indicates that we need place, people, and product to live well-spirited (eu daimon) lives.
4. We should face the personal and social roles of the desire to understand within ourselves i.e., desire, accountability, movement.  You can’t change what you don’t know and you won’t know if you don’t face it.  Others help you face it.
5. Know, and take seriously, the cost to you and others of your desire to understand: Your nature provides clues to the direction of your optimum journey.

None of this is easy.  I have spent more time writing and re-writing these six blogs (Know Thyself I-VI) than any series preceding these.  Why?  Because I suspect the ancient Greeks knew as much (or more) about human nature than any other source I have yet encountered.  And of those ancient Greeks, Aristotle, and the Stoics, rank topmost.  In short, I want to know and integrate this stuff and I want to make it as understandable to others as possible.

If we compare just the highlighted portions of the five points above to Heraclitus’ expression about character, another equation emerges.  If character is guardian spirit, and if what we do affects our spirit, then character is habituation; habituation character.  While this relationship omits genetics, other than maintaining good health, there is little one can do to alter one’s genetic inheritance.  But, there’s a ton one can do to alter one’s habits.  Using the list above, let’s look at what can be done.

• Before lapsing or using, ask yourself, Why does this drug exist?  (It exists because people keep buying it.)  Why?  (Because they want to get high.)  Why?  (To temporarily vacate their lives.)  Why?  (Because they are in pain and alone.)  So using takes away the pain and loneliness?  (No, both are worse after using and you need more drugs, have less money, fewer friends…) Why do I want to use?  (Great question.)

• Before giving in to that desire to use, remove from your back pocket the piece of folded paper on which you have written I have a choice here.  I have a mind able to understand what’s happening.  If I use, I make it harder to quit.  If I do not use, I build a positive trend and I improve my chances of solving my problems and building a worthwhile life.  By not using I change the direction of my own life from negative to positive.  My choice.

• Just before you grab, read what’s on the other side of that paper: I belong.  I am a human being who needs to understand that I am, that I deserve to be, and that I, too, have needs.  But, to sort those needs, I must find a way to get along with other people and with the world.  That is my responsibility.  Learning to get along, that is, to be well, helps me to get healthy, rebuild relationships, and rebuild a life worth living.

• People need people.  You are a person so you need people, too.  It’s your job to understand yourself and how you can stay healthy in this life that you have been privileged to receive.  Honest people, with genuine good will can help you know who you are in a way you alone cannot.  So, face the fact that, like everyone else, you’re an imperfect creature in need of other imperfect creatures and then get on with moving forward based on your values.

• Pay attention to the world and pay attention to your reactions to the world.  You have a unique set of inherited and learned traits.  Some are changeable, others less so.  Pay attention to what you like and why you like it and build more of that into your life.  There is an internal resonance when you and the world are in harmony.  Everyone knows that resonance.  That resonance is what it feels like to love being alive. 

And all of this from some of the lecture notes of a man who lived 2,500 years ago.  Point being: the fundaments of life on earth do not change, we just need to know those fundaments to live in harmony with them. 

Dan Chalykoff provides one-to-one counselling concerning life direction, addiction, and change. He writes these blogs to increase (and share) his own understandings of ideas.  Since 2017, he has facilitated two voluntary weekly group meetings of SMART Recovery: danchalykoff@hotmail.com