Exploring the Social Imagination

Monday, May 2, 2011

The Self as Social Imagination and Free Will

Approaching this notion of Self as Social Imagination and Free Will I am reminded of the drawing by M.C. Escher, titled, Hands. It is the one where hands draw hands. Interesting to look at ;-) but that is not all... Escher wanted us to consider his own hands drawing hands drawing hands ;-).  The point of this drawing is the interwoven, interconnectedness of the subjective and objective, the ins and outs, the push/pull of the mental and physical world. This drawing by Escher is not the only drawing he created (Escher Relativity:1953 or Concave and Convex 1955 i.e.) intended to illustrate the subjective and objective relationship or the mental and the physical relationship. Escher meant for us to understand this drawing as an event that is greater than the event which it seems to illustrate... as it is never ending.  So you see, we are already there at that place, that point that Escher was trying to make... in this blog post, I am inside and outside (I am not alone because I am talking to you) I am and you are thus something which is much greater than this post event and it is never ending. There is no threshold, no beginning and no end or point at where one is without the other. Is this an explanation for the self as social imagination and free will. Yes, it is. How? It is because inasmuch as we think we have free will to make a decision, we are the hands in the hands drawing and it is being drawn.

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