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Narrative identity, practical identity and ethical subjectivity
Citation
Atkins, KM, Narrative identity, practical identity and ethical subjectivity, Continental Philosophy Review, 37, (3) pp. 341-366. ISSN 1387-2842 (2004) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com
DOI: doi:10.1007/s11007-004-5559-3
Abstract
The narrative approach to identity has developed as a sophisticated philosophical response to the complexities and ambiguities of the human, lived situation, and is not – as has been naively suggested elsewhere – the imposition of a generic form of life or the attempt to imitate a fictional character. I argue that the narrative model of identity provides a more inclusive and exhaustive account of identity than the causal models employed by mainstream theorists of personal identity. Importantly for ethical subjectivity, the narrative model gives a central and irreducible role to the first-person perspective. I will draw the connection between narrative identity and ethical subjectivity by way of an exposition of work by Paul Ricoeur and Marya Schechtman, and a brief consideration of Korsgaard’s work on practical identity and normative ethics. I argue that the first-person perspective – the reflective structure of human consciousness – arises from human embodiment, and therefore the model of identity required of embodied consciousness is more complex and irreducibly first-personal than that provided in a causal account. What is required is a self-constitution model of identity: a narrative model of identity.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
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Research Division: | Philosophy and Religious Studies |
Research Group: | Philosophy |
Research Field: | Metaphysics |
Objective Division: | Culture and Society |
Objective Group: | Ethics |
Objective Field: | Social ethics |
UTAS Author: | Atkins, KM (Dr Kim Atkins) |
ID Code: | 38340 |
Year Published: | 2004 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 31 |
Deposited By: | Philosophy |
Deposited On: | 2005-08-01 |
Last Modified: | 2010-05-13 |
Downloads: | 9 View Download Statistics |
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