What is "be yourself"?

Discussion in 'General Philosophy' started by Semon, Mar 28, 2006.

  1. Semon Howdy, hi and hello. Registered Senior Member

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    is it possible to not "be yourself" ?
     
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  3. c7ityi_ Registered Senior Member

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    if i'm happy, i am myself, because happiness is what i want. i am my wills.

    consider a magnet. it is always seeking love, to unite, but it's own contradictory will to remain a separate 'being' (the fear, the belief in the mask, the resistance in matter) wont allow it.

    if we want to become what we are in reality, all our masks, our personalities, must be given away. they are my creations, they are not the same as me, the creator.

    god said to moses: "i am what i am". this thing called god is the real self.

    if i lie, i'm not myself, because i'm everything, so there should be reason to fear and lie. so... when we're honest, we are ourselves.
     
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  5. Hapsburg Hellenistic polytheist Valued Senior Member

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    Yes. By imitating someone else, by following the trends to the letter, by falling into the prep clique, and being not how you want to be.
     
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  7. Tnerb Banned Banned

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    All of you are wrong.
    It is very possible to not be yourself. "Be yourself" means many things.
    Takecare

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  8. Bob the Unbeliever cogito ergo sum Registered Senior Member

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    A simple question.

    But, it requires a complex answer.

    Must first define "be".

    Then, must define "yourself".

    If you take very literal definitions of these, then, you could say that ALL that you are is always "you". Since, you are the only one in complete control of you, even if it does not seem so: you may give permissions to others so that they seem to have some control over you, but the permission is there, weather it's a conscious or a sub-conscious decision.

    Thus, one could say, that it is impossible to be anything other than yourself.

    But, likely, this literal defination is not in the spirit of the question you were asking.

    ...

    Perhaps, you were really asking, is it possible to be FALSE to yourself?

    I.e., "being yourself" can be taken as shorthand for "be TRUE to yourself".

    In that case, then it IS quite possible to "not be yourself" as it is clearly possible to be false to yourself: to lie to yourself.

    ...

    If that is a given, then we must ask to what degree of "true-ness" and "false-ness" is the threashold set?

    Does ANY amount of "false-ness" constitute "not being yourself"? As in a TRUE-FALSE test, any part of the question deems the whole "false".

    If THIS is the case, then it is tantamount impossible to "be yourself" as for EVERYone there is at least some small self-deception. I do not think that anyone is truly capable of objecifying themselves enough to avoid that.

    ...

    If, however, we set the threashold more realistically, to some nebulous "more" or "less", then it is, of course, possible. By that I mean, if you are "more True" than you are "false" to yourself, then by this setting, you would "being yourself". If you had more "false-ness" than "truth", then you would NOT be "being yoursef".

    ...

    Interesting question, nonetheless ...

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  9. Crunchy Cat F-in' *meow* baby!!! Valued Senior Member

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    Don't act or hide your thougts and feeling.
     
  10. water the sea Registered Senior Member

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    "Just be yourself" -- one of those phrases that short-circuit my mind and bring it to a complete halt.


    For all practical purposes, "Just be yourself" means 'Subscribe to the assumption that you have a context-independent, finite and analytically definable self.'

    "Just be yourself" bewilders me.
     
  11. Meanwhile Banned Banned

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    "just be yourself" shouldn't bog your mind, water: its very simple connotation is direct, and an incredibly quick reminder during tense incidental moments when you are but halted in your tracks -- but its simple tune, like the quick chirping of a bird, is not meant for everyone: "know thyself" is its prerequisite.
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2006
  12. Meanwhile Banned Banned

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    I tend to remind myself of that, to just be myself, right before a portfolio interview when I know that every gesture and every pause will be analysed -- it helps me relax to know that I don't need to put on an act that I might be ill prepared to court.
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2006
  13. Meanwhile Banned Banned

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    ... so, i can chew gum, albeit demurely, at one of those meetings without feeling self-conscious. Ha.
     
  14. water the sea Registered Senior Member

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    Meanwhile,


    Oh yes. I first wrote about that in my previous post, but deleted it then.

    I had tried to get to "know myself" for years. It brought me so far that I wanted to end my life.

    What is "self"?
    Answering this question gives me only assumptions.
     
  15. perplexity Banned Banned

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    Limitations and deficiencies define a personality.

    "I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams." (Hamlet: Act II, Scene II)


    Beyond that

    "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances."
    (As You Like It, act II scene VII)


    --- RH.
     
  16. c7ityi_ Registered Senior Member

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    nothing-everything (the only real Being)

    or like christ said: i am the way, life and truth!

    he was talking about me, the universal self within us!

    religions call it god! in psychology it's called the higher self.

    the self is also love, the power which unites everything. because... everyone has separated from themselves. it's not enough to know oneself, we also have to be ourself. that's the only way to marry, to unite.

    "desire stems from a feeling of deficiency, from the search for a complementary half which we lack, without which we feel alone and forsaken. If, however, we have found everything in ourselves, if we are a whole, what more do we require?"

    honestly.
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2006
  17. Harlequin Banned Banned

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    Nice tactic - quote the Bard in an attempt to lend weight to your argument.
    Which is a fallacy; Strengths help define as well as limitations. Circumstances refine them even more.
     
  18. perplexity Banned Banned

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    On the contrary, there is no unlimited strength.

    Strength is measured by limitation, how much you can lift, how many games you win, who you beat, how high you climb, how long you last, it is all a matter of limit.

    Until then you test your strength there may be a hope, perhaps a potential, but no definition.

    ---- RH.
     
  19. water the sea Registered Senior Member

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    Ah, shoot yourself in the foot! --


    There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow!


    But Hamlet's wit's diseased, he cannot make you a wholesome answer.
    And Shakespeare is dead, he cannot redeem Hamlet.

    Hamlet had the good -- or bad -- fortune to be killed before resolving his crisis. We, however, continue to live. Yet, despite being prompted by heaven and hell to action, we unpack, like a whore, our hearts with words. And worse -- with borrowed words!


    Shakespeare won't come to write a nice ending for me.
     
  20. Meanwhile Banned Banned

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    I would have ended mine several times already had I never been disgusted with violence. But that's a different matter.

    Suicide: the desire to delete oneself from a certain context... What context?

    But knowing that, even if the context is blurry — is that not knowing one's context? Being aware of one's context, being aware of one's circumstance, being aware of one's environment? I mean, to "know myself" doesn't always necessarily demand of me to know myself thoroughly in and out, but to also know when I'm in a total blank.

    I love, simply adore the fog. I know how the fog affects me, I know how cosy and mystified I get, I know how vacant I become of myself.

    But can I see through the fog??? No. And I don't expect to. I most certainly will not be a fool and wander beyond that which I can't see, beyond a certain context, beyond a certain periphery, beyond a prescribed limit of my own self — good God, beyond the edge of my world!

    Yet, in my ignorance of my self, and in a very different context to that of the fog, in an opened space of cosmic proportions, perhaps, I will also know the limits of my capacity. Simply put: one has to also know oneself in one's own ignorance of oneself. And it seems you've achieved that.

    Next step: how do you deal with your ignorance of yourself? Think of suicide? Well, knock on wood! That's being yourself!

    Oddly enough, I never had to really define that for myself in the same way that you are posing the question, as though you suspect a trick answer in the way that most philosophers suspect tedious "revelations". See? I accept the limits of my ignorance in this context to a "problem" that I have disowned long ago. (I prefer to be a light traveller.) But I also know myself well enough that all I expect from that tiresome old question, without getting all bogged down about it, is to know what I have always taken for granted: self is a sense of being. But not just any sense, nor any being, but my sense of being. Even in my ignorance.

    Well, I usually hammer that nail right in there to make sure it won't dislodge. A big loud bang. And bang bang bang somemore. I'll assume the nail won't unscrew itself and strip naked and sing and dance while I'm not watching. Lol.
     
  21. Harlequin Banned Banned

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    I can see what point you are making, but you are only speaking from a certain perspective.

    In fact, there is no argument here that I can see beyond "the glass is half empty, the glass is half full".
    If there is more to your position than that, then by all means elaborate.

    *edit - to clarify further, it seems we're arguing semantics rather than the point itself.
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2006
  22. perplexity Banned Banned

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    He already did:

    ... If it be now, ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all. Since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is ’t to leave betimes? Let be.

    Everything is flexible, impermanent, constantly changing and developing.

    --- RH.
     
  23. perplexity Banned Banned

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    further to is it possible to not "be yourself" ?

    The point would be that it depends on how much of a not self one wants to be.

    Self esteem is moot.

    Some want to be somebody else.
    Others would rather be nobody.


    --- RH.
     

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