Rethinking the Western Understanding of the Self

di Ulrich Steinvorth (Autore)

Cambridge University Press, 2009

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.

• Autore: Ulrich Steinvorth
• Editore: Cambridge University Press
• Anno: 2009
• Rilegatura: Hardback
• Pagine: 230 p.
• Dimensioni: 234 x 160 mm
• Peso: 430 gr.
• EAN: 9780521762748

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