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Self

Ancient and Modern Insights about Individuality, Life, and Death

Richard Sorabji author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Oxford University Press

Published:6th Nov '08

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Self cover

Richard Sorabji presents a brilliant exploration of the history of our understanding of the self, which has remained elusive and mysterious throughout the spectacular development of human knowledge of the outside world. He ranges from ancient to contemporary thought, Western and Eastern, to reveal and assess the insights of a remarkable variety of thinkers. He discusses a set of topics which are at the heart of our understanding of ourselves: personal identity; memory; the importance of seeing one's life as a whole; the relation between self, intellect, will, and agency; self-awareness; the stream of consciousness; embodiment; death and survival. He rejects the view, found in various philosophical and religious writings, that the self is an illusion, and develops his own original conception of the self as essential to our ownership of our experience and our apprehension of the world.

So rich and complex a work as this can hardly be expected to elicit the complete agreement of any reader, but I am persuaded that it will prove intellectually fecund for all. * Péter Lautner RHIZAI *

ISBN: 9780199550135

Dimensions: 228mm x 153mm x 23mm

Weight: 563g

414 pages