Rethinking the Western understanding of the self / Ulrich Steinvorth.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Steinvorth, Ulrich, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Descartes, René, 1596-1650.

Descartes, René.

Self (Philosophy)--Europe.

Self (Philosophy).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (vii, 222 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

The West and the self

Basics of philosophical psychology. Heideggerian and Cartesian self

Free will

Cartesian, Lockean, and Kantian self

Extraordinariness and the two stages of rationality

The Cartesian self in history. The cause and content of modernity

The second-stage rationality in history

Economic rationality

The Cartesian self in the twentieth century

Value spheres. A diagnosis and therapy for modernity

Value spheres defined and the state

The serving spheres

Technology

Utilitarian or Cartesian approach

The media and the professions

Science

Art and religion

Sport

Latin and absolute love

A self-understanding not only for the West. Is the core idea of modernity realizable at all?

Harnessing extraordinariness

Cartesian modernity

The undivided, universally developed individual

The end of history?

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 01 Feb 2016).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-107-19388-5

1-139-17525-4

0-511-65106-6

0-511-59302-3

0-511-59209-4

0-511-59495-X

OCLC:

609843121