A Word: AWARENESS Knowledge of self comes from both without and
within. In structured environments, (work, home, school,
society, family, friends, within conversations) people often
know who they are, and are 'being' who they are at the same
time. Does awareness of self (self-knowledge) abruptly stop the
process of "be"ing? While I am thinking about "Who Am I?", do I
stop the "Who"ing process? Much of knowledge of self consists in
knowing one's roles. A role is part of the "who", and part of
the "be". If I am a parent, I both know my role as parent and
-am- my role as parent. If I am a computer programmer, I know my
role as computer programmer, and I -am- my role as computer
programmer. So, this proposition holds true in structured
environments, within limits. Does it hold true in greater
circles? Can I know that I am a citizen, and also -be- a
citizen? Definitely. I think the key to the combination of
knowledge and being at the same time, is AWARENESS. When you are
PRESENT, not trapped in the past or fiddling around with the
future, and engaged in whatever you are engaged in at the
present, and knowing what you are doing and who you are, and how
others see you, then that is a case where we -can- know who we
are, and be who we are at the same time." [MY ENTRY FOR
*CHALLENGE THE PHILOSOPHY* "In concise words, tell us how the
idea that we cannot know who we are and be who we are at the
same time can be overcome." Mine is entry 218.
http://www.challengethephilosophy.com/e214-223.asp [this is the
response I received: _We agree that we can know and be who we
are "within limits" as in being and knowing a conscious role
from our perspective. What allows for this state of simultaneous
being and knowing is that the role is a conscious phenomenon, so
that the union of being and knowing in terms of role is
contingent on comparison. For example, according to John the
role of a writer is to write books (i.e. conscious definition),
and John is writing books and aware of it (i.e. conscious
observation); so John knows his role, and he is being his role.
However, it does not follow that any of our roles actually
correlate to who we are as in fundamental level of being.
Therefore, though we can know and be who we are in a limited
sense (i.e. conscious roles), it does not follow from this
limited sense that we can actually know and be who we are. In
order to overcome this problem of being and knowing, you need to
show how our consciousness actually correlates to who we are as
in fundamental level of being._]
