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A History of Ideas: Know Thyself

Stephen Fry on Know Thyself

Is it possible to know oneself? And what good does it do? The ancient Greeks carved the maxim ‘Know thyself’, or ‘gnothi seauton’ onto the temple of Apollo. Socrates knew that he ‘knew nothing’. Thomas Hobbes felt that by knowing oneself, one could understand others. But as we discover more about psychology, the unconscious and the way the brain works, can we really be sure that the ‘self’ exists at all?  

Want to hear more on this topic?

Here’s the whole episode from A History of Ideas – Paul Broks on John Locke and Personal Identity.

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