Title: The site of our lives : the self and the subject from Emerson to Foucalt /
Authors: Hans, James S., 1950-
Publisher: State University of New York Press,
Year: 1995
Subjects: Self (Philosophy); Subject (Philosophy); Perspective (Philosophy); Philosophy, Modern; Philosophy, Modern
Abstract: This book addresses the question of human uniqueness at a time when academic discourse has all but abandoned its long-held commitment to the value of individuality. Through an appraisal of the works of Emerson, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Derrida, and Foucault, the author establishes the ways in which the current critique of the self has grossly distorted the nature of the debate by reducing it to a simple choice between essential or constructed selves. Hans argues that the tradition that emerges from Emerson's work is based on a relational sense of the individual as much as it is devoted to the premise that we all have a specific form of integrity. Likewise, even though Nietzsche's critique of the fictional nature of the subject is the origin of contemporary visions of the fabricated self, Nietzsche is equally insistent that each of us is a productive uniqueness: we are all principles of selection whose links to the world embrace more than the social circumstances around us.
Contents: Introduction: Heavy Construction -- Ch. 1. The Essential Self -- Ch. 2. An Untimely Meditation -- Ch. 3. The End of Humanism -- Ch. 4. The Unnameable -- Ch. 5. The Nightmare of Self-Loathing -- Conclusion: Invasion of the Body Snatchers.