The Relational Self in Heidegger, Zhuangzi, and Derrida
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2012
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Haverford College. Department of Philosophy
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Thesis
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Award
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eng
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Open Access
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Abstract
In Derrida, Heidegger, and Zhuangzi, there is a certain resonance to the idea of a self. Not the self, as an essential form or transcendental ontological concept, but a self, the instance of an individual being in a given time and space. Where and when we are determines, to a large extent, who we are, in that we are products of our social and historical environments. Since these social and historical environments are constantly changing for us, then we to must be constantly changing within these new times and spaces. The instance of a self, then, is contingent on its social and historical contexts. However, throughout all these contexts, there remains one thing that is determined by them: the self. This self is the intersection of social, historical, and ontological contexts, and is constituted by the relations between these concepts. The shifts in these relations are traced through the works of Heidegger, Zhuangzi, and Derrida, and their conceptions of the self all come to a similar conclusion, that, as Werner Heisenberg puts it, “modern man confronts only himself”, and to some degree humans have always primarily confronted themselves, because we are only here as ourselves. However, we also have potential, we change, and then we cease to exist. This change occurs mainly according to our colloquial descriptions, when we say that someone really put his or her self out there, or when one invests one’s self in an endeavor, or again in the general description of selflessness. Strictly speaking, existentially, we never step outside or leave ourselves, but our sense of self expands as we allow ourselves to take part in life’s changes. This putting of ourselves into relation with our own changes is the most authentic way of being in the world.