In this Book
- The Philosopher's "I": Autobiography and the Search for the Self
- Book
- 2006
- Published by: State University of New York Press
summary
This book examines philosophers’ autobiographies as a genre of philosophical writing. Author J. Lenore Wright focuses her attention on five philosophical autobiographies: Augustine’s Confessions, Descartes’ Meditations, Rousseau’s The Confessions, Nietzsche’s Ecce Homo, and Hazel Barnes’s The Story I Tell Myself. In the context of first-person narration, she shows how the philosophers in question turn their attention inward and unleash their analytical rigor on themselves.
Wright argues that philosophical autobiography makes philosophical analysis necessary and that one cannot unfold without the other. Her distinction between the ontological and rhetorical dimensions of the self creates a rich middle ground in which questions of essence and identity bear upon existence.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Title Page
- p. iii
- Copyright, Dedication
- pp. iv-v
- Introduction
- pp. 1-15
- 1. Writing the Self
- pp. 17-47
- 2. Bifurcating the Self
- pp. 49-108
- 3. Masking the Self
- pp. 109-133
- 4. Transforming the Self
- pp. 135-175
- Bibliography
- pp. 203-209
- Index [Includes Back Cover]
- pp. 211-217
Additional Information
ISBN
9780791480984
DOI
MARC Record
OCLC
85857951
Pages
228
Launched on MUSE
2012-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No