The wisdom of the great Greek philosophers accompanies us to the present moment. The problem, says José Carlos Ruiz, is that if we do not understand it in its context it becomes distorted and becomes a double-edged sword. It inspires us, but in the wrong direction.

In the interview that the philosopher gives to the podcast It makes sensereviews one of the phrases that, from his perspective, have been most distorted in recent times. Is the “know thyself”a phrase that is repeated ad nauseam in self-help books and that, from the point of view of José Carlos Ruiz, can be deeply cruel. Likewise, the philosopher is also critical of the idea that work is an end to achieving happiness as promoted by positive psychology.

know yourself

For José Carlos Ruiz there is no crueler phrase than this: know yourself. You may have put your hands on your head as you read it, wondering how this sentence could be cruel. But it is when it is taken out of its usual context.

“Self-help extracts all the wisdom and the years it takes to understand Plato or the Oracle of Delphi, in short the Greeks, and suddenly He takes a phrase and reinterprets it however he wants«, explains the philosopher in his speech in It Makes Sense Podcast. “Know thyself”, that is what could be read in the oracle of Delphi according to the Greeks.

The problem, says José Carlos Ruiz, is that “the Greeks, starting with the Athenians, had no concept of the individual. So, when they say know thyself, they are not talking about an isolated individual. who is in a kind of autonomous meditation, to see who he is and where he is going.” Because, in fact, thinking that our identity does not depend on the people and contexts that surround us is complete idiocy.

A world full of idiots

We are not trying to be misleading when we talk about “idiots”, which, as the philosopher explains in the aforementioned interview, has nothing to do with intelligence.. Idiocy, he claims, comes from Greek and means “one who does not concern himself with public affairs.” Because, for the Athenian or the Greek, the city was always more important than the subject.

That is why, the expert assures, that “‘know yourself’ basically had a lot to do with the social situation within your community. That is, where you are located.”

Knowing yourself is impossible if you do not understand the links you establish with others, but if you do not understand what you can contribute, and what others contribute to you.. “Because knowledge is never isolated”assures the philosopher.

«Knowing yourself is an absurd thing when it is extracted from the context, as if saying that you have to know your limits. It makes no sense because you are a consequence of a community education process. You are the consequence of that process. We have educated you together, and from there you cannot know yourself without understanding the links you have around you,» adds the philosophy professor.

The tyrant phrase

In addition to being absurd, José Carlos explains, this isolated message taken out of context can be very cruel. He calls it “the tyrant phrase”, because “when the subject thinks that what he has to do is a constant introspection of where he is going,” he disconnects from others. It makes us solely responsible for our destiny, our desires, our context.. And that is unfair.

“Since Foucault, philosophy has already told us that the structure of desire is conditioned by the mechanisms of power,” explains the philosopher. “That is, what you consider to be your desire, It has a very high percentage of social structure that has told you what you have to want. So, look at the social environment where you grew up, what type of advertising you consume, what content, and you will see how your desire is structured without you realizing it,” he clarifies.

This point is key, because we live in a society in which we are driven by desire, that commodified idea of ​​“purpose.” The idea that there is no personal fulfillment without professional development.

Although it is not the only reason the quote gives the philosopher goosebumps. “The phrase itself, when you take it out of context, seems very cruel to me.”he says, “how are you going to force a subject in solitude to have to do that titanic process when it turns out that you are the conjunction of many views?” he asks.

His conclusion is clear. If we isolate the individual and tell him ‘know thyself’, you are breaking his identity. “The cruelty is absolute because he is going to be responsible for absolutely everything,” including those failures that depend on his social context.