> Alexander Nekvasil wrote:
> >
> > Miles Jackson <cqmv at pdx.edu> writes:
> >
> > ...
> >
> > > I don't quite get this: we recognize and enact our connection with
> > > all humankind by actually interacting with people, not by solitary
> > > reflection. [clip]
>
> >
> > Most of the time, when interacting, we act out.
>
> 1) What does this mean?
>
> 2) What are your grounds for the claim?
>
> 3) What's wrong with "acting out," whatever that means.
>
> 4) Are you implying that we are only our "real self" (whatever that
> might mean) when we are alone? The Greeks did have a nice word for
> "private person": _idiotes_.
I don't think the distinction between solitary reflection and interacting with people is useful here. You can endlessly play the same games on our own (_idion_), just like you can endlessly play the same games with other people. Just in the latter case you need the proper counterparts, who may or may not be easy to find.
We live our memories. Sometimes (less often than we like to believe) we can recuperate our memories _as_memories_, while most of the time we just live them unthinkingly, or, as Bergson would say, we play them, or as the psychoanalysts would say, we act them out: the family romance, the Oedipal drama, our favorite TV show, ... the Roman republic, the Russian revolution ...
I notice I have difficulty explaining this. It will get better, but that will take a while. For the moment, I hope the little sketch suffices. Sorry, ba the way, for the long delay. I was not well.
cheers AN