Human self-reflection is the capacity of humans to exercise introspection and to attempt to learn more about their fundamental nature and essence. The earliest historical records demonstrate the great interest that humanity has had in itself. More than 3,000 years ago, "Know thyself", an ancient maxim by the Delphic oracle, Pythia, was inscribed on the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo when it was built over one of the oldest known religious sites in Ancient Greece. Human self-reflection is related to the philosophy of consciousness, the topic of awareness, consciousness in general, and the philosophy of mind.
History
Early writings
Notions about the status of humanity may be revealed by the etymology of ancient words for humans. Latin homo means "of the earth, earthling", probably in opposition to "celestial" beings. Greek ἂνθρωπος means "low-eyed", again probably contrasting with a divine perspective. From the third-millenniumOld Kingdom of Egypt, belief in an eternal afterlife of the humanka is documented along with the notion that the actions of a person would be assessed to determine the quality of that existence. A claim of dominance of humanity alongside radical pessimism because of the frailty and brevity of human life is asserted in the Hebrew BibleGenesis 1:28, where dominion of humans is promised, but contrarily, the author of Ecclesiastes, bewails the vanity of all human effort.
Classical antiquity
made the famous claim that humans are "the measure of all things; of what is, that it is; of what is not, that it is not". Socrates advocated the ancient adage for all humans to "Know thyself", and gave the definition of humans as, "featherless bipeds". Aristotle described humans as the "communal animal", i.e., emphasizing society-building as a central trait of human nature, and being a "thought bearer animal", a term that also may have inspired the species taxonomy, Homo sapiens.
Middle Ages
The dominant world-view of medieval Europe, as directed by the Catholic Church, was that human existence is essentially good and created in "original grace", but because of concupiscence, is marred by sin, and that its aim should be to focus on a beatific vision after death. The thirteenth century pope Innocent III wrote about the essential misery of earthly existence in his "On the misery of the human condition"—a view that was disputed by, for example, Giannozzo Manetti in his treatise "On human dignity".
Renaissance
A famous quote of Shakespeare's Hamlet, expresses the contrast of human physical beauty, intellectual faculty, and ephemeral nature:
René Descartes famously and succinctly proposed: Cogito ergo sum, not an assessment of humanity, but certainly reflecting a capacity for reasoning as a characteristic of humans, that potentially, could include individual self-reflection.
Modern era
The Enlightenment was driven by a renewed conviction, that, in the words of Immanuel Kant, "Man is distinguished above all animals by his self-consciousness, by which he is a 'rational animal'." In conscious opposition to this tradition during the nineteenth century, Karl Marx defined humans as a "labouring animal". In the early twentieth century, Sigmund Freud dealt a serious blow to positivism by postulating that, to a large part, human behaviour is controlled by the unconscious mind.
Comparison to other species
Various attempts have been made to identify a single behavioural characteristic that distinguishes humans from all other animals. Many anthropologists think that readily observable characteristics are based on less easily observable mental processes that might be unique among humans: the ability to think symbolically, in the abstract, or logically, however, several species have demonstrated some abilities in these areas and neither is it clear at what point in human evolution these traits became prevalent. Such characteristics may not be restricted to the species, Homo sapiens, as the extinct species of the genus Homo, since Homo neanderthalensis and Homo erectus were adept tool makers and may have had linguistic skills. In learning environments, reflection is an important processing part in order to maximize the utility of an experience. Rather than moving on to the next 'task' humans may review the process and outcome of a task and—with the benefit of a little distance —may reconsider what the value of experience might be and for the context of which it was a part.
In meditation
Often during meditation humans experience introspection. When the brain experiences introspection, it can be said to be "reflecting upon itself". The action is described as "the looking into our own minds and reporting what we there discover". A study done by Cara Rosaen and Rita Benn analyzed middle school students who had not meditated prior to the study. Researchers found young people meditating for the first time experienced "improvement in skills indicative of emotional intelligence ". The study concluded saying that middle school students who meditated for the first time experienced "increased state of restful alertness and greater capacity for self-reflection, self-control, and flexibility as well as improved academic performance."
And sobriety
A study involving clients in a twelve-step program explored the role of self‑reflection through diary writing, not only as daily therapy, but in a retrospective context. The study concluded that clients who read and reflected on their past diary entries demonstrated increased participation in the treatment program. The twelve-step program is based on self reflection and the accountability of actions past. The article by Mitchell Friedman indicates that success in one's recovery relies on self-reflection.
