Rethinking the Western Understanding of the Self
eBook Features
-
Read Anywhere
Read your book anywhere, on any device, through RedShelf's cloud based eReader.
-
Digital Notes and Study Tools
Built-in study tools include highlights, study guides, annotations, definitions, flashcards, and collaboration.
-
Offline Access
(
100% )
The publisher of this book allows a portion of the content to be used offline.
-
Printing
(
5%
)
The publisher of this book allows a portion of the content to be printed.
Additional Book Details
Ulrich Steinvorth offers a fresh analysis and critique of rationality as a defining element in Western thinking. Steinvorth argues that Descartes' understanding of the self offers a more plausible and realistic alternative to the prevailing understanding of the self formed by the Lockean conception and utilitarianism. When freed from Cartesian dualism, such a conceptualization enables us to distinguish between self and subject. Moreover, it enables us to understand why individualism – one of the hallmarks of modernity in the West – became a universal ideal to be granted to every member of society; how acceptance of this notion could peak in the seventeenth century; and why it is now in decline, though not irreversibly so. Most importantly, the Cartesian concept of the self presents a way of saving modernity from the dangers that it now encounters.
Sold By | Cambridge University Press |
---|---|
ISBNs | 9780511590238, 9780521762748, 9780521762748 |
Language | eng |