The Problem of Self-Knowledge and Political Myth-Making

In this work, the problem of self-knowledge is posed and its solution is proposed through the concept of political myth-making. In the first chapter, the problem of self-knowledge is revealed through appeals to three key authors: Karl Marx, Michel Foucault and Plato. Three typical solutions to this problem are identified, corresponding to the named author: revolutionary, provocative and compromise. A revolutionary solution implies that the problem of self-knowledge is insoluble in this community and a revolution is required. A provocative solution implies that it becomes a person’s task to find some ideal model of behavior within the community that does not allow him to find himself. A compromise solution implies that people are divided into different natures and the community not always acts as an enemy for a person who seeks to understand himself. Based on the compromise solution as the most successful, in the second chapter the author offers his own vision of the division of people into different natures; the need for a new separation is determined by the fact that in the Plato's “State” human natures are determined based on an ideal community, while the author suggests starting from life in an imperfect one. Defining guards and philosophers as people who independently create their own myth, that is actually is a creation of a new reality; the author shares their activities: the guard creates an unjust myth, focused primarily on himself, the philosopher creates a political myth, that is, a fair one; it also indicates the reasons why just, political myth-making is a genuine solution to the problem of self-knowledge.