Self Knowledge as "Remembering:" A Platonic Dialogue Continues

Rating: Null/10 (7 March 2003)

A question I must answer, every single day of my life, is the most fundamental of all: Who am I? Am I the product of my environment, whether good or bad? Am I defined by what I do? Am I synonymous with my job? Is my personality, my very sense of self, God's own caricature, written long ago in the stars and etched in the palm of my hands? Or, Do I have the willpower to choose who I am? Can I say who I am without reference to my past, or my occupation?
Matt Damon's character, Jason Bourne, is a man who is faced with exactly this challenge, which is what makes The Bourne Identity inherently compelling. While watching Jason's attempt to discover himself, to find out who he is, I sit and share his inner trepidation, for one reason: when he discovers his social identity, Will it be compatible with his natural, instinctive self, the self that has come to him from a near death experience like a second birth? Or, Will he find out that he's gone off the rails somewhere along the way? Will he find out that the choices he's made, the life and occupation he's chosen for himself, is in alignment with his uncluttered self? I identify with the main character because I'm forced to ask myself the same questions. Is all this stuff I use to describe myself, my personal history, my talents, who I really am? Does my personal history really reflect my deepest values? Am I living an authentic life?

This is interesting stuff, a compelling reification of Socrates's idea of learning as `recollection.' The main character discovers, as does the audience, that his past life is an identity, a cover story, and not the true Jason Bourne. It's as if he's playing `What's My Line,' and he's all three contestants. In this film, Bourne is a hero of self-discovery, and not some idiotic `James Bond' type who can't distinguish his penis from his gun.