David Kaspar

Lecturer in Philosophy
University of Nevada Reno

“Be Yourself”

Tuesday, May 6, 2008 - 4:00 p.m.

Edmund J Cain Hall, Room 108H

Philosophy Department Classroom

University of Nevada, Reno

Be yourself. That is the advice we often hear. Sometimes we are told this by someone who has our best interest at heart, and there may be something to what they say. Other times people say this because they don't want to be bothered with our problems.  They think that, since everyone knows what it is to be yourself, you will take their advice and go away. But what does it really mean to be yourself? What is yourself? And how can you be it?

In this talk I argue that we don't know what it means to be yourself. I will discuss such issues as what a self is, what forms of 'being yourself' take us away from being ourselves, and what it is to be yourself.  One conclusion of this talk is that you should not follow any single philosophy of life.  Existentialism will serve as an illustration of what not to follow, and not just because becoming an existentialist requires escaping from yourself.  Existentialism brings us as close to ourselves as any philosophical theory.  But being a theory, it urges us to move away from self-discovery.

David Kaspar is a Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy who received his PhD from State University of New York at Buffalo. His specializations are in ethics and political philosophy and his other interests include history and economic theory.

Sponsored by
The Philosophy Department, UNR, 784-6846
and
The Leonard Endowment
http://www.unr.edu/philosophy
 

Lecture Flyer in pdf (Acrobat Reader) format