Oxford Philosophical Concepts
A History
Oxford Philosophical Concepts
A History
Throughout the history of philosophy, the idea of a self as an irreducible part of a human being was often debated and contested. In this volume in the Oxford Philosophical Concepts series, the contributors trace the history of how philosophers have addressed these self-related questions.
Levertijd: 5 tot 10 werkdagen
The Self: A History explores the ways in which the concept of an 'I' or a 'self' has been developed and deployed at different times in the history of Western Philosophy. It also offers a striking contrast case, the 'interconnected' self, who appears in some expressions of African Philosophy.
The I or self seems engulfed in paradoxes. We are selves and we seem to be conscious of ourselves, yet it is very difficult to say what a self is. Although we refer to ourselves, when we try to find or locate ourselves, the I seems elusive. We can find human bodies, but we do not refer to ourselves by referring to our bodies: we do not know that we are raising our hands or thinking hard by looking at our arms or catching a glimpse of our furrowed brows in a mirror. The essays in this volume engage many philosophical resources--metaphysics, epistemology, phenomenology, philosophy of psychology and philosophy of language--to try to shed needed light on these puzzles.