Otherness and the Arts

The Delphic injunction to know thyself, to understand oneself as self, entails alienating self-reflection and the awareness that the limits of any entity, hence its individuation, are determined by what lies outside these borders - otherness. But where...

The Delphic injunction to know thyself, to understand oneself as self, entails alienating self-reflection and the awareness that the limits of any entity, hence its individuation, are determined by what lies outside these borders - otherness. But where is this division between the I and other located? How is this schism constructed? Or can this schism even be discerned? Instead, the injunction of the Arts articulates an inverse yet more immediate approach to the problem of knowing thyself. It entails an understanding of oneself as other: the boundary between "I" and "that which I am not," necessary for our constitution as subjects, dissolves in our Homeric hero's proclamation "Nobody - that's my name."

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