Towards a Self-Knowledge Revolution

Scientific Essay from the year 2008 in the subject Sociology - Miscellaneous, , language: English, abstract: What passes for self-knowledge today consists largely of narratives we tell ourselves and others, with no basis in systematic measurement or experimentally tested theory. By even the most minimal scientific standards for what legitimately could be claimed as knowledge, it is strange but safe to say that no person in history has ever been known ¿ by himself, herself, or anyone else. Compared to our knowledge in other areas, our self-ignorance is profound. What we lack is a science of ourselves. Despite the standard exhortations to know and be responsible for ourselves, the fact is that there has never been a focus of expertise, technology, and dedicated effort to understand a single person. A science of each person is now possible in our time. To be successful, a program of self research would require the integration of specially designed tools and techniques ¿ in short, a "self system" ¿ for pursuing self-knowledge over a lifetime, and this simply has yet to be developed. This text discusses self-discovery and is an unabashed call to overcome both the internal and external forces that have deterred us from pursuing deep, scientific understandings of ourselves. By taking on this challenge, let us also prepare for the consequences of success ¿ including the possibility that a radically technology-enhanced solution to the age-old problem of "knowing thyself" will lead us to nothing less than a global democratic revolution. In fact, it may be that only through a self-knowledge revolution can the importance of each and every person on Earth be accepted universally, irrevocably, for all time.