For a man who believes himself to be something, nothing is more shameful than to allow himself to be honored not for his own worth but for his ancestors’ reputation.
—Socrates (Plato, Menexenus)
With “Black History Month” and my students in mind.
2 thoughts on “A Critique. An Exhortation. Of Derivative Self.”
Mmmm… Which begs the question: what should our relationship with our ancestors be?
We tend to treat the dead with prejudice. Should we not relate to them as if they lived still, as much as possible? If they are praiseworthy, we should praise them. If they are not, we should not. And supposing that it is with the dead as it is with the living, we must not assume that praising them makes us more like them without our effort also to imitate whatever it is we find praiseworthy in them.
Mmmm… Which begs the question: what should our relationship with our ancestors be?
We tend to treat the dead with prejudice. Should we not relate to them as if they lived still, as much as possible? If they are praiseworthy, we should praise them. If they are not, we should not. And supposing that it is with the dead as it is with the living, we must not assume that praising them makes us more like them without our effort also to imitate whatever it is we find praiseworthy in them.