Know thyself
Gnothi seauton (Greek Γνῶθι σεαυτόν Gnothi seauton, also Γνῶθι σαυτόν Gnothi SAUTON, "Know thyself! ") Is a much-quoted inscription on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, as the author Chilo of Sparta, one of the " Seven Wise Men ", is considered. The receivable is the god attributed to Apollon in ancient Greek thought. As Nosce Teipsum the statement was adopted into Latin.
Origin
The first evidence for the idea is found in a fragment of the philosopher Heraclitus: " All people is given to recognize themselves and to think sensibly. "
The saying was - in addition to also regarded as Apollonian wisdom Ἐγγύα, πάρα δ ἄτα ( engýa, pára d 'am " guarantee, damage is already there!" ) And Μηδὲν ἄγαν ( Meden ágan " Nothing in excess " ) - on a column the vestibule of the temple of Apollo in Delphi. He has been attached no later than the middle of the 5th century. After a fragment of the lost treatise "On the philosophy " of Aristotle he was even on the previous building, which was 548/547 destroyed by fire, but the credibility of this claim uncertain.
The author of the invitation to human self-knowledge was in ancient times the god Apollo himself; was controversial but, what man has expressed the spell first. Even before the beginning of the 4th century, the three Delphic sayings were attributed to the Seven Sages. The Gnothi seauton was usually assigned to Chilo of Sparta, as well as attribution to Thales, Solon and Bias of Priene occurred in ancient times.
The Aristotle -student Theophrastus referred to the saying in his work on the Proverbs as saying. Chamaileon associates it in his book about the gods Thales. Hermippus writes in his first book on Aristotle, that a eunuch Labys in Delphi, the Temple Guardian was in the sanctuary, had expressed this saying. Clearchus of Soli claims it is a commandment of the Pythian Apollo was that Chilo was given as oracle, when he asked what people should learn the most. Aristotle writes Gnothi seauton to in his dialogue on philosophy of Pythia. Also Antisthenes claimed that the saying came from Phemonoe, the first Pythia at Delphi, and Chilo only have usurped him.
Different meanings
The requirement to identify themselves, aimed initially to inspect the limitations and frailty of man (as opposed to the gods ). Thus, its existence was meant as a species; but it was thought not only to humanity and fundamental limits of attainable for humans, but the saying also served often as a warning against the over-estimation of individual possibilities. In numerous texts of classical Greek we find the interpretation that the man should be aware of mortal to be imperfect and limited. The understanding of the award as an indication of a natural weakness of mortals that you should see, knowledge leads to humility, remained present throughout antiquity and was common in the Roman imperial period. In this sense, for example, emphasized the Roman Stoic Seneca, it is a matter to visualize the physical and mental vulnerability of the people; not only a great storm, but even a minor concussion could let the people go like a fragile vessel to pieces.
An additional highlight was the Stoic tradition, by linking the demand gnothi seauton with its goal of integration of man in the natural context. Self-knowledge was embedded in the desire to "live according to nature " in ( homologoumenōs Te physei Zen).
A different development took the idea of self-knowledge in Platonism. For Plato, the aspect was in the foreground, that man should gain knowledge about one's own ignorance, so he strives for true wisdom and thereby also refined his character. The quest for such self-knowledge was a central part of his ethical project of concern for the soul, whose well-being depended on to cultivate virtue ( arete ) for Plato. This results in a change of meaning paved to. In addition to the traditional, more resigned understanding of self-knowledge, emphasizing the inherent, insurmountable limits of the achievable, entered a more optimistic interpretation. She made the call for self-knowledge and the starting point for an insight into development opportunities that are provided through the supernatural origin and nature of the soul. Such ideas were developed in the early Platonism. Ascribed Already in Plato, in the 4th century BC, resulting dialogue Alcibiades I was the anthropological concept of self-knowledge of the soul fully formed. The opinion stated therein, according to the states Gnothi seauton that man should be seen for what he is, namely a body- inhabiting and end -use immortal and godlike soul.
The positive aspects should be sought self-knowledge emphasizing Platonic understanding of the spell had a significant aftereffect in antiquity. In this sense, Cicero said in a letter to his brother Quintus, the meaning of the saying was not limited to it to curb the arrogance, but also go to a prompt to recognize the peculiar us good ( bona nostra ).
The Neoplatonists based human weakness and frailty of the body that God similarity to the intellectual achievements of the soul. They interpreted the requirement of the Delphic maxim as an invitation to self-knowledge of the soul in terms of its divine origin, nature and destiny; not in the external world is to find the redeeming truth, but, in reflecting on itself, the Neoplatonist Porphyry wrote a multi-volume treatise On the Gnothi seauton, which has only survived in fragments. In late antiquity, Macrobius spread the Neoplatonic interpretation of the saying in his very influential commentary on Cicero's Somnium Scipionis. He quoted a verse of the satirist Juvenal, after which the Gnothi seauton " descended from heaven " was. Juvenal had this but not written in a religious, but in an ironic context and based on the maxim of a wise decision of life and everyday issues. In the Middle Ages and until the 17th century the Juvenalvers in conjunction with the Neoplatonic interpretation of the saying was often cited.
Christian writers of antiquity, such as Clement of Alexandria and Origen argued that the idea originally from the Old Testament and had come from the Jews to the Greeks. Peter Abelard used the claim as the title of his ethics ( Ethica seu scito se ipsum ) and thereby underlining the importance of subjective reason and the mind as the basis of moral action.