Psychoanalyze Me

Just as our choice of friends shows something about our own character, so the philosophers we admire reveal something about our own personality as well.

- Alexander Nehamas, The Art of Living (1998), p. 6

I really like this quote. Not just because it may contain insights into the dark workings of the minds of philosophers, but because it suggests how we can often turn subjective questions into objective questions. Let me explain.

Nehamas thinks that the philosophers we admire reveals something about our character. For instance, we may have had particularly acute experiences of ostracization and alienation, and therefore have a great admiration for Michel Foucault; or we may be a person who just loves to play by the rules and to stay at home every Friday night, so have a great admiration for Kant. The implication is that we don’t admire Foucault or Kant because we think their work is particularly reasonable or insightful, but because we feel some sort of emotional connection – something in our character resonates with something in their work. Moreover, these motives may be hidden from us.

This insight need not be limited to the relatively small arena of philosophy. The same thought could be applied to lots of different parts of life. The individuals we admire, the art we fill our lives with, the communities we desire to be a part of, the public image we aspire to, the politicians we vote for. Perhaps even the theologians we admire and the denomination we associate ourselves with? All these could be said to reveal something about our character, about our personality.

I think we mostly think of the answers we come up with in these various domains of our lives as more or less objective. That is, we think that the reason we like certain art is because it is good art; the reason we vote for a certain politician is because we came to the conclusion that she was the best candidate; we admire theologians because they were right etc.

But what if all that is mere facade? What if these reasons we claim to have are a mere chimera? What if all our life is just expressing our tastes, emotions and personality? As a Christian I find this thought quite uncomfortable, and want to be able to say this is in fact not the case, and the objective reasons I thought I had I do in fact have. But why do I have that reaction? I know that humans are complex and shot through with the damage of sin, so why shouldn’t I expect mysterious psychological forces to be at play behind clean claims to rationality?

Troubling thoughts for a Wednesday…