View source for Interior Identity

==Meme==
[[Interior Identity]] concepts are constructs built in a mind (either natural or artificial) for use by the mind.

==Context==
Any data processing ecosystem, either group of humans or computers, will construct

* See the wiki [[Mind Brain Intelligence Knowledge Wisdom]] for descriptions of the differences in these ideas.

==Concept of the Self==
Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s idea of the inner versus outer self is central to his philosophy of authenticity, freedom, and the corruption of modern society. He believed that humans are born naturally good, with an inner self that is sincere, feeling, and morally pure—but that this self becomes distorted by the outer world of social expectations, appearances, and artificial norms.

===The Inner Self===
Rooted in natural sentiment and authentic emotion.

Exists prior to society’s influence—what Rousseau calls the “state of nature.”

It’s where true freedom and moral worth reside.

Best expressed in solitude or intimate, honest relationships.

===The Outer Self===
Formed by social pressures, conventions, and the desire for recognition.

Driven by amour-propre—a kind of pride or vanity that depends on others’ opinions.

Leads to self-alienation, where people perform roles rather than live authentically.

Encourages hypocrisy, competition, and inequality.

===In The Confessions and Émile===
Rousseau tries to reveal his inner self without embellishment, even when it’s unflattering. He writes: > “I have entered upon a performance which is without example... I mean to present my fellow-mortals with a man in all the integrity of nature; and this man shall be myself.”

In Émile, he argues that education should protect the child’s natural self from being corrupted by society too early—preserving the inner moral compass before it’s buried under social conditioning.

But then each nation-state tries to train each individual in the civics of their own state so that they can grow in their capability to both contribute to the state and help in the governance of that state. In Democracy and Education (1916), John Dewey argued<ref>John Dewey, ''Democracy and Education'' (1916)</ref> that education should cultivate the habits of critical inquiry, cooperation, and social responsibility—the very traits needed for democratic life

===Why It Matters===
Rousseau’s distinction anticipates modern concerns about authenticity, identity, and the psychological toll of living in a performative world. He’s a philosophical ancestor to thinkers like Nietzsche, Freud, and even today’s critics of social media culture. Fukuyama describes this [[Interior Identity]]<ref>Francis Fukuyama ''Identity''  ISBN 9780374129293</ref><blockquote> as a feeling of plenitude and happiness that emerges as an individual seeks to uncover the true self hiding beneath the layers of acquired social sensibility ties. Rousseau's sentiment of existence would one day morph into what is now called lived experience, which lies at the root. of contemporary identity politics. Rousseau thus stakes out a distinctive position regarding human nature. ... What Rousseau asserts, and what becomes foundational in world politics in the subsequent centuries, is that a thing called society exists outside the individual, a mass of rules, relation-ships, injunctions, and customs that is itself the chief obstacle to the realization of human potential, and hence of human happiness. This way of thinking has become so instinctive to us now that we are unconscious of it. It is evident in the case of the teenager accused of a crime who raises the defense "Society made me do it," or of the woman who feels that her potential is being limited by the gendered and sexist society around her. On a larger scale, it is evident in the complaints of a Vladimir Putin who feels the American-led international order wrongly disrespects Russia, and who then seeks to overturn it. While earlier thinkers could critique aspects of existing social rules and customs, few argued that existing society and its rules needed to be abolished en masse and replaced by something better. This is what ultimately links Rousseau to the revolution.</blockquote>

==References==

[[Category: Identity]]