Welcome to this “Philosophy at work” session, where we examine concepts related to our work life. We use Socratic dialogue to create a ‘Community of Inquiry’. Thinking out loud also means that you don’t have to mean what you say, or stand for it – we’re just trying out some ideas. Really:

we’re creating a community of inquiry by focused and directed thinking out loud.

Weaving it all together.
And now, I will share my screen and start us off with some ideas, and then we do a round, and then we finish on time. 😊
So, today, we’re talking about…

Self-scrutiny

As in, scrutinizing yourself.
Scrutiny means … 

Critical observation or examination

Which sounds … well, it’s not a gentle warm bath with not a worry in the world, kind of thing. It’s not indulgence, or an Italian wine tasting … But it’s also not like a marathon – something you’ve prepared and planned for months. It’s more like a

Customs inspection

Like, “show us your phone and laptop. Empty your pockets. All liquids in this plastic bag. You ticked all the boxes for understanding the requirements here. What’s that? Are you carrying stuff that isn’t yours?”

“Are you carrying stuff that isn’t yours?”

Good question, right?
‘Cause if you do, you’re responsible for it now.
Are you sure that they shouldn’t carry it themselves?
Or, it’s like a

Lie detector

Which would be really, really cool to have, right? An internal lie detector, so you immediately know that you’re not lying to yourself – including putting up evolution blockers that pretend to be made of concrete…

You know – these blockers – they’re in my world, and if I put them there, I can remove them. Did I put them there? That’s where it would be good to have an internal lie detector. ‘Cause I will feel, of course, like I have simply reacted the only way possible to a traumatic situation – but, if I can imagine someone different from me reacting in a different way, didn’t *I* have something to do with it? Isn’t this the *self* that’s the control tower, watching all of those feelings and reactions do their thing, whatever it is they do?

The “self” as the “person’s” control tower

I think this “Self” is so interesting. And elusive. But somehow, there *is* an instance that sort of knows, at least most of the time, what’s going on in the “person”. Right? The self is the instance that can say things like, “apparently, I feel really threatened by my partner’s success, ‘cause suddenly last night I found myself feeling really jealous …” (in a semi-ironic voice).
Right? There’s some part of us that can…

talk about what’s going on

…And we can… practice being there, instead of in the feelings and reactions.
I think that ‘self-scrutiny’ means that the *Self* is doing some scrutinizingSelf-scrutiny = Self is scrutinizingIt’s going, like, “What’s going on right now? Am I OK with this? Is there something here that I can leave behind? Am I following my values? Is this what I wanted to do? What did I want to do?” So, in Natalie’s screenshot from Merriam-Webster, we see that there are 31 synonyms for Self-scrutiny, like…

Introspection, self-examination, soul-searching, self-reflection, self-observation, self-questioning, contemplation…

A lot of them bring up this reflexive, boomeranging, “in on itself” looking. So,

What do you expect to see?

I mean, what do you expect that your seeing will accomplish? Like – you probably hope that things will be better in some way, but how? Is it just because seeing what things are like will let you change what you don’t like?

Seeing = now I can change

Is that it?
That would be cool.
That’s a reason to keep doing philosophy. Like Sartre said:

“A lucid view of even the darkest situation is already, in itself, an act of optimism: It shows that the situation is thinkable.”

And now, a round … 😊  

  • What’s evolutionary reason for pain and anxiety? You need change
  • Consider your employment in this context
  • Sometimes self-scrutiny can be more about other people than you … what you think others think of you/alignment with self-image
  • “What other people think of me is none of my business”
  • There’s growth to be found in introspection … but don’t break yourself down completely
  • Does identification always lead to change? Should it?
  • Scrutiny is a little harsh … How about just reflecting? (Scrutiny sounds like wanting to find the undesirable)
  • Why is scrutiny not a neutral word?
  • Personal lie detector … we probably all have one (but we turn it off)
  • What else can I see? What else? What else?
  • I don’t need to self-scrutinize as much now … Don’t need such strong opinions and feelings anymore — it’s a different voice now
  • Maturing the “Self” is a path.

Philosophy is what we need.