Self, value, and narrative : a Kierkegaardian approach / Anthony Rudd.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rudd, Anthony, 1963-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Kierkegaard, Søren, 1813-1855.

Kierkegaard, Søren.

Self (Philosophy)--History--19th century.

Self (Philosophy).

Values.

Narration (Rhetoric).

History.

Physical Description:

viii, 268 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2012.

Summary:

In this book, Anthony Rudd defends a series of closely related claims about the nature of the self. He argues that the self is a being that constitutes or shapes itself, and that it can only do this non-arbitrarily if it is guided by a sense of the good. This ethical or evaluative dimension to selfhood has an essentially teleological character, and can only be understood in narrative terms. Versions of these ideas have been developed by various influential philosophers (including Frankfurt, Korsgaard, MacIntyre, Ricoeur, and Taylor) but Rudd's account is importantly different from others familiar in the literature. He takes his main inspiration from Kierkegaard and argues (controversially) that he belongs in the Platonic rather than the Aristotelian tradition of teleological thinking about the self and the good. Through close engagement with much-contemporary philosophical work, Rudd presents a convincing case for an ancient and currently unfashionable view: that the polarities and tensions that are constitutive of selfhood can only be reconciled through an orientation of the self as a whole to an objective Good. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part 1

Chapter 1 Self-Shaping and Self-Acceptance 11

I A Tension in Our Thinking 11

II Distinctions and Definitions 17

Chapter 2 The Teleological Self: Plato and Kierkegaard 26

I The Teleological Self in Classical Ethics-and its Loss in Modernity 27

II Platonic Teleology 34

III Kierkegaard on the Self 38

IV Conclusion 48

Appendix to Chapter Two: A Note for Kierkegaardians 49

Chapter 3 Character 51

I Character and Expression 51

II Scepticism About Character: Goldie 58

III Scepticism About Character: Doris 63

Part 2

Introduction to Part Two 69

Chapter 4 Personhood, Self-Shaping, and the Good 79

I Frankfurt: Identification and Caring 79

II The Platonic Critique of Frankfurt 86

III Value Realism Defended 92

Chapter 5 Three Theories of Value: a Kierkegaardian Critique 100

I Frankfurt and Anti-Realism 101

II Korsgaard and Constructivism 107

III Foot and Ethical Naturalism 117

Chapter 6 Being for the Good 126

I Pluralistic Value Realism 126

II Degrees of Value 132

III The Unity of the Good 137

IV Kierkegaard: the Ethical and the Religious 141

V A Case for Strong Platonism 146

VI The Ascent 154

Part 3

Introduction to Part Three 163

Chapter 7 Selfhood and Narrative 175

I Narrative and Intelligibility 177

II Narrating a Whole Life: the Narrative Self 183

III Narrating a Whole Life: First Personal Narratives 186

IV A Minimal Self? 193

Chapter 8 Narrative and Value 201

I The Narrative Form of Evaluation 201

II Episodic Ethics? 207

III Ethical Objections to Narrativity 214

Missing the Adventure? 214

The Beauty of Being and the Way of the Wanton 218

Back to Bloomsbury? The 'Aestheticism' Objection 221

Ricoeur: the Return of the Minimal Self? 222

Naked Subjectivity 224

Chapter 9 The Unconscious Self 228

I The Unconscious, Psychoanalysis, and Narrative 228

II The Unconscious as Complementary: from Freud to Jung 237

III The Unconscious and the Good 244

IV Knowing Oneself, Knowing the Good 249.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780199660049

0199660042

OCLC:

794040185