Product Description

In this clear and reasoned discussion of self- knowledge and the self, the author asks whether it is possible truly to know ourselves. He looks at issues of great importance in moral psychology, epistemology, literary criticism

Product Details

• Published on: 2000-09-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

Review
"Jopling's discussion is carried on with remarkable clarity. His presentation of the diverse philosophical positions is balanced and fair. . . . Self-Knowledge and the Self is a work of excellent, sound scholarship, a most significant contribution."
-Hazel Barnes, author of "Sartre and Flaubert
"Jopling's book is the most sustained and serious contemporary philosophical reflection on the Delphic injunction "Know thyself" of which I am aware. Drawing on literature and psychotherapy as well as solid argumentation, it gently but persuasively exposes inadequacies in the individualistic theories of Hampshire, Sartre, and Rorty and sketches the advantages of a more dialogic approach. Ideally, readers should come away not only knowing what it means to know oneself, but also, in some respects, actually knowing themselves better!."
-William L. McBride, author of "Social and Political Philosophy
"In this impressive survey, Jopling not only provides incisive critiques of the major contemporary theories of self-knowledge but also introduces a significant alternative approach, one that stresses the role of dialogue and communication."
-Ulric Neisser, editor of" Remembering Reconsidered

From the Back Cover
In Self-Knowledge and the Self, Jopling poses the question of whether it is really possible to know ourselves as we really are and illuminates issues about the nature of self-identity that have fundamental importance in moral psychology, epistemology and literary criticism.
Jopling observes that self-knowledge is possible, although it is not what one might initially think it is - a solitary and contemplative endeavour, a work of the self and by the self. On the contrary, Jopling claims that the self we come to know is dependent on how it is known. He asserts that self-knowledge is a dynamic process which is only possible in interaction with other selves. In other words, we know ourselves insofar as we are known by others - and we learn to answer the question 'Who am I?' not by hermit-like withdrawal from society but through face to face dialogue with other people who have widely differing sensibilities and outlooks than we do.
The book focuses on four major accounts of self-knowledge: The philosophical psychology of Stuart Hampshire, the existential-phenomenological philosophical psychology of Jean-Paul Sartre, the neo-pragmatist philosophical psychology of Richard Rorty, and dialogical philosophical psychology.
Along the way, and by way of illustration, the book engages themes in literature, drama and psychology.