A child is born with certain instincts. So, for example, the child might experience a certain kind of discomfort, in response to which the child instinctively cries. If this cry (a "gesture", in Mead's terminology) is followed by food from her mother and thus satisfaction (the "response"), the meaning we eventually attribute to this interplay of gestures and responses is hunger.
The meanings of things, therefore, are constructed. Meaning is not something that is inherent in our daily lives - it is something that we create in our minds and in our interactions with one another. This has tremendous implications for language as a whole: for example, Derrida noted that the meaning of a word is altered with every single use of that word, over time. …show more content…
Every time you think of yourself, you think in terms of the object version of yourself, or your "me" phase - your "I" phase is always actively doing the looking, and any thinking about your self is done retrospectively. David Bohm (I wrote a bit about his work in this article) seems, to me at least, to speak of the "I" phase of self as being part of the immeasurable, and is thus rather mysterious.
Another interesting thing about the "I" and "me" phases of self is that different people seem to live more through the one than the other. Many people seem to live through the "me" phase of their selves: they're the people who are rather predictable, who can tell you exactly who they are and that they know themselves well.
Da Silva gives some examples of people throughout history whose "I" phase of self was very strong, such as Buddha, Jesus and Socrates. Such individuals are apparently more likely to be unpredictable and often act from an unknown (and possibly unknowable) source. Mead says that the "I" phase of self is a source of novelty and thus creativity. The stronger your "I" phase of self, the more powerfully you could potentially change a group of people (think of the impact that individuals such as Buddha, Jesus and Socrates have had on modern society).
Everyone else is somewhere in between being creative and …show more content…
They act according to who they think they are, but who they think they are is simply a product of the groups that have influenced them the most. We all suffer from this to a certain degree, and it's not necessarily a bad
The meanings of things, therefore, are constructed. Meaning is not something that is inherent in our daily lives - it is something that we create in our minds and in our interactions with one another. This has tremendous implications for language as a whole: for example, Derrida noted that the meaning of a word is altered with every single use of that word, over time. …show more content…
Every time you think of yourself, you think in terms of the object version of yourself, or your "me" phase - your "I" phase is always actively doing the looking, and any thinking about your self is done retrospectively. David Bohm (I wrote a bit about his work in this article) seems, to me at least, to speak of the "I" phase of self as being part of the immeasurable, and is thus rather mysterious.
Another interesting thing about the "I" and "me" phases of self is that different people seem to live more through the one than the other. Many people seem to live through the "me" phase of their selves: they're the people who are rather predictable, who can tell you exactly who they are and that they know themselves well.
Da Silva gives some examples of people throughout history whose "I" phase of self was very strong, such as Buddha, Jesus and Socrates. Such individuals are apparently more likely to be unpredictable and often act from an unknown (and possibly unknowable) source. Mead says that the "I" phase of self is a source of novelty and thus creativity. The stronger your "I" phase of self, the more powerfully you could potentially change a group of people (think of the impact that individuals such as Buddha, Jesus and Socrates have had on modern society).
Everyone else is somewhere in between being creative and …show more content…
They act according to who they think they are, but who they think they are is simply a product of the groups that have influenced them the most. We all suffer from this to a certain degree, and it's not necessarily a bad