The reflecting self remains engaged, historical, and worldly rather than detached

Evidence

In the Prison Notebooks Gramsci says: “The starting-point of critical elaboration is the consciousness of what one really is, and is ‘knowing thyself’ as a product of the historical process to date, which has deposited in you an infinity of traces, without leaving an inventory.” The only available English translation inexplicably leaves Gramsci’s comment at that, whereas in fact Gramsci’s Italian text concludes by adding, “therefore it is imperative at the outset to compile such an inventory.” — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 96 (#expands, via linked claim)

Thus reflection is consciousness of the three ekstatic dimensions. It is a non-thetic consciousness (of) flow and a thetic consciousness of duration. For reflection the past and the present of the reflected-on are set in existence as quasi-outside in this sense: that they are not only held in the unity of a for-itself which exhausts their being in having to be it but also for a for-itself which is separated from them by a nothingness; they are for a for-itself which, while existing with them in the unity of a being, does not have to be their being. Through reflection also the flow reaches toward being as an “outside” outlined in immanence. … Reflection therefore apprehends temporality and reveals it as the unique and incomparable mode of being of a selfness—that is, as historicity. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 521 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Reflection reveals temporality as the historicity of the for-itself — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 521; Consciousness and world are simultaneous in authentic reflection. — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 235; Self-awareness lifts the I above itself while it remains itself — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 814 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Critical self-awareness begins by inventorying the historical traces that have formed the self. #expands (0.85) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 96
• Reflection reveals temporality as the historicity of the for-itself #expands (0.82) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 521
• Practical involvement precedes detached reflection in his ontology #qualifies (0.80)
• Consciousness and world are simultaneous in authentic reflection. #corroborates (0.78) — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 235
• Self-awareness lifts the I above itself while it remains itself #qualifies (0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 814
• Modern observers grasp the world as a representation rather than as lived reality #contradicts (0.72) — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 115