ABSTRACT
The complexity of actions toward other persons is matched by actions toward self. Self-appraisal leads to decisions: to avoid acts, to make amends, to do better, to repent, to do as well. Self-appraisal is thus "surrounded by a halo of 'can' and 'cannot,' 'will' and 'will not,' 'should' and 'should not.'" Commitment, even to a major way of life or destiny, is subject to revision in process—at least until the final commitment of self-sacrifice. Error, re-evaluation, and the hypothetical nature of classifications, suggest a further corollary feature of man's relationship to his world. A thoroughly static environment, met with thoroughly stable responses, would be in turn thoroughly known. A problematic world presents not only discovery but danger. The danger consists in the possibility that one may lose his world and his possessions. What the new identity will be-for anyone, after any critical self-appraisal–no one can quite predict, including the person who is doing the self-appraising.
