Philosophical Self-Knowledge

What is the Self, and how can it remain the same while continually changing? Philosophical Self-Knowledge is a searching and original exploration of personal identity, consciousness, embodiment and the human capacity to know oneself. Rather than treating the Self as a fixed collection of psychological characteristics, Ioannis Christodoulou examines it as a living, changing reality that endures through time, relationships, memory, thought and bodily existence. Beginning with philosophical doubt concerning the very existence and continuity of the Self, the book confronts some of the most enduring questions of human thought. Can we truly know ourselves? Is personal identity stable or fragmented? How are we shaped by the judgements of others? What unites the different selves that appear throughout a human life? Can change occur without the loss of identity? The inquiry moves from the ancient injunction 'Know thyself' to major philosophical and psychoanalytic approaches to human nature. Through critical engagement with thinkers including Sextus Empiricus, David Hume, Friedrich Nietzsche, Francis Bacon, Ludwig Feuerbach, Aristotle, Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler and Baruch Spinoza, the author examines the Self as body, psyche, consciousness, will, memory and relation to alterity. At the centre of the book lies the concept of Self-Poiesis: the philosophical process through which the Self does not merely observe or describe itself, but actively participates in its own formation. Self-knowledge is therefore presented not as a final definition, but as a continuous reflective achievement. Rigorous yet deeply connected with lived experience, Philosophical Self-Knowledge invites readers to undertake their own philosophical return to the Self. Reading becomes an act of self-examination—and potentially an act of self-creation.