"I" am not "Me"

I have recently been attending a tremendously difficult class taught by Jean-Luc Marion called "Negative Certitudes: The Phenomenology of the Impossible." This class has been tough to wrap my mind around, but it has also produced some interesting reflections which, I believe, have powerful theological implications. Specifically, we have been discussing the nature of a definition of "human essence."

What Marion, and others, want to assert is that we cannot get to the deepest dimension, phenomenologically speaking, of human essence. There is something that escapes our reflective powers. We can think about it like this: "I" reflect upon objects as they present themselves to me in my experience. "I" see a chair, a table, an apple. These "objects" are objects in the sense that they are disclosed to me under certain conditions (namely, the condition of being attended to in my experience). But, I do not just have access to external things, but also inner things (myself). Yet, my inner reflections must also have an object, and that object is "Me." However, I cannot fully reflect upon my inner self, because the object "Me" does not include the dimension of my self which is doing the reflection. In other words, every reflection needs an "I" to reflect, an "I" that stands outside of reflection.

From this it seems that "I" can never get to the "I" in my reflections, I'm left only with that part of myself that is capable of being subject to my own experience: "Me." From this, we can say that "I" am not "Me." Or, to say it differently, I can never reduce who it is that I am to "Me." I am always more than who I can think myself to be. The "I" is that mysterious element of myself that escapes reflection and any adequate definition of human essence. It is the part of myself (and, by extension, you) that, if we think theologically, could reflect the mysteriousness of God. If, as many religious thinkers like to think, we are created in some image-related way to God, then, this mystery may be a part of our very selves.

This opens up all kinds of neat things to think about. I would love to hear what you think.