“Self-knowledge is like a garden. If it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested.” (Ghanaian proverb)

From my point of view, this quote in poetic terms is like a simile where self knowledge is like a “garden”. “If it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested.”

“Self Knowledge” is commonly used in philosophy to refer to knowledge of one’s particular mental states, including one’s beliefs, desires, and sensations. This knowledge is importantly different from the knowledge about the world external to oneself, including other’s thoughts. For example, if self-knowledge includes our beliefs, which would also include the religion and culture which I follow. From the very beginning my parents have told me what the different festivals are and what kind of religious beliefs we follow. For instance, being a Hindu, we do eat meat but we don’t eat beef because we pray to the cow. This is notified to us from the very beginning and so now we abide the rule and try not to say that we are not aware of it. This refers to the quote that, Self knowledge, in this case our beliefs is cultivated in us – notified to us by the society as well as by our parents and therefore it is harvested in us – we only follow this knowledge when we are told and we strictly abide to it. Moreover, I also believe that Self-Knowledge also includes one’s desire, in simple sense desire is cultivated within us, we desire to want something and until we don’t do so, it cannot be fulfilled – harvested. Another meaning of self-knowledge is sensations; this is basically like introspection which is the process by which one forms beliefs about their own mental states. We might form the belief that someone else is happy on the basis of perception, for example, by perceiving their behavior. However, a person typically does not have to observe their own behavior in order to determine whether they are happy. Rather, one makes the determination by introspection which is to "look within". In terms of the quote, it is cultivated within us to perceive our sensations as well as how others might be feeling. However, it is not always harvested within us, if our perception says one is happy, it doesn’t mean that they are happy, it can be that they are pretending or hiding their feelings for various reasons.

To conclude, I totally agree with the quotation “Self knowledge is like a garden. If it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested”. As I mentioned, it includes our beliefs, desires and sensations rather than the knowledge about the world. In this case, beliefs, desires and sensations are cultivated within us and are mostly harvested.