Journal of the American Philosophical Association 4 (2):243-261 (2018)
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Abstract |
Philosophers have often understood self-knowledge's value in instrumentalist terms. Self-knowledge may be valuable as a means to moral self-improvement and self-satisfaction, while its absence can lead to viciousness and frustration. These explanations, while compelling, do not fully explain the value that many of us place in self-knowledge. Rather, we have a tendency to treat self-knowledge as its own end. In this article, I vindicate this tendency by identifying a moral reason that we have to value and seek self-knowledge that is independent of the reason that we have to value the beneficial ends that it helps us achieve. I argue that we are in an inescapable relationship with ourselves that requires both self-love and self-respect. Self-love gives us a noninstrumental reason to know ourselves, while self-respect demands that we take this reason seriously. To pursue a project of self-discovery carefully and for its own sake, then, is part of what it is to stand in a loving and respectful relationship with ourselves.
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Keywords | self-knowledge self-respect respect self-love self-deception normative ethics self-regarding duties |
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DOI | 10.1017/apa.2018.19 |
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Lectures and Essays.W. K. Clifford, Leslie Stephen & F. Pollock - 1879 - Revue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 9:450-463.
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