Selfhood and its Influence on Reasoning

2015-02-11

Yesterday’s post on the octave is a work-in-progress. Another work-in-progress is the application of the different levels of selfhood to reasoning. The idea of different levels of selfhood, for those not familiar with this approach, comes from J.G. Bennett and suggests that different levels of energies (automatic, sensitive, conscious, creative) can organize our experience and consequently our possibilities in very distinct ways. He called these the Material Self, the Reactional Self, the Divided Self and the True Self.

There is too much background material needed to fully explain all of this in a blog post, so for those who wish to follow up on this approach, please click this link: to download the chapter on Selves from Bennett’s book “Deeper Man”. It’s definitely worth the effort to acquaint oneself with this description of selfhood if only to understand the characteristics of the Material Self and the Reactional Self. From this study one can directly see what kind of self-imposed prison is formed from their incorrect functioning, and also how we can get out of that prison.

That said, the table below is a first approximation for understanding how the different levels of selfhood limit or expand our personal world views (our cosmology) and our possible aims. This in turn has a direct influence on our ability to reason. This table is definitely a work-in-progress and we hope to update it very shortly. Your comments and contributions are welcome.