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Kind of related, but does anybody have any links to essays/reading critiquing the whole assumedly-good concept of self-improvement?
by snagflag 10y ago
Kind of related, but does anybody have any links to essays/reading critiquing the whole assumedly-good concept of self-improvement?
- miguelrochefort 10y agoAs a self-improvement nut, I'm interested in this as well.
- rhizome 10y agoYou're begging the question (who is doing the assuming?), but in general you'll want to look into critical theory, perhaps beginning with Spinoza's TIE (an easy read). The point as I see it is to analyze what is meant by "self-improvement," and whether the choice of topics of things to improve about oneself involve an ideology that is irrelevant to the process of self-improvement. That is, whatever you become by improving on a specific item or topic involves a question of why that thing was chosen. This is what critical theory helps with. The Spinoza helps to construct a model of first principles.
- snagflag 10y agoThanks for the reply. Will look into it!
- tafda 10y agoHorkheimer and Adorno, The Dialectic of Enlightenment “Enlightenment, understood in the widest sense as the advance of thought, has always aimed at liberating human beings from fear and installing them as masters. Yet the wholly enlightened earth radiates under the sign of disaster triumphant” However it's a dense read; questioning rationality itself is somewhat broader than your specific question.