Dennett and Ricoeur on the Narrative Self

by McCarthy, Joan

• ISBN13: 9781591025481
• ISBN10: 1591025486
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-07-17
• Publisher: Humanities Press

Summary

The meaning of the self is a discourse as timeless as humanity's very existence. Philosophers have long pondered ways to satisfactorily define and discuss the self, applying a wide range of theories to a variety of human experiences of selfhood-from the very stable to the radically fragmented. The complexity of the question itself is ambiguous and explains the debate's persistence: How can one adequately define that which is so elusive-oneself? In Dennett and Ricoeur on the Narrative Self, author Joan McCarthy elucidates the theory of the narrative self and the complexities that can emerge even within the confines of a particular theory. McCarthy illustrates a conception of the self as a narrative unity, presenting it as a positive alternative to traditional philosophical solutions to the problem of human identity-solutions that tend to cast the self as either substantial or illusory. In making this claim, she forces the reader to reconsider existing moral frameworks, shifting the focus of meaning away from a purely authorial perspective and toward an analysis of relationships.

Author Biography

Joan McCarthy is a lecturer in healthcare ethics at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Brookfield Health Sciences Complex, University College Cork, Ireland

Table of Contents

Introduction: Why the Narrative Self?	p. 9
Contemporary Interest in Narrative
Is the Self Real or Illusory?
Dennett's Brand of Naturalism	p. 23
The Heterophenomenological Method (HM)
Consciousness and the Self
The Naturalist Narrative Self	p. 47
Puzzle Cases
The Heterophenomenological Method and the Narrative Self
The Limitations of Dennett's Account	p. 73
The Limits of Language
Epistemological Fragility
Ontological Fragility
Naturalism and Phenomenology
Confronting Naturalism	p. 105
Phenomenology and Hermeneutics
The Detour of Interpretation
Reflexivity
The Problem of Personal Identity
The Number of Selves, Identity Relations, and Tests of Truth
The Capable Self and Its Narrative Identity	p. 139
Narrative Identity and Aristotelian Muthos
Narrative Recounting of Human Lives
Ipse-identity and Literary Puzzle Cases
Certainty, Knowledge, and Attestation
Self-understanding and Self-attestation
Narrative Attestation	p. 187
Fact and Fiction
Narrative Attestation
The Limitations of Ricoeur's Account	p. 219
Selective Appeals to Literary and Psychoanalytic Discourses
Focus on the Self-examining Self
Conclusion: Assessment	p. 245
The Ontological Status of the Narrative Self
The Epistemological Status of the Narrative Self
The Practical Self
Why the Narrative Self?
References	p. 267
Index	p. 285
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