The Self and What to Do About It

Catalog description

This seminar examines a variety of views about “the self.” Each of us, it seems, is or has a self. Just what is this self—how can we identify it? And when we see what it is, what lessons should we draw—what should we do about it? We study an eclectic range of writings on these questions, mostly philosophical works, but also some fiction and poetry. Central attention will be paid to existentialist treatments of the self by Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Sartre, for whom the topic is crucial. We compare their answers with those given by Emerson, Whitman, and William James—a second focus of the seminar. But we also broaden the discussion well beyond these thinkers, drawing into the conversation other writers from different ages and cultures, including the Indian and Chinese traditions. By the end of the course, students may or may not be able to say just what their self is, but they will have a better understanding of the complexity and interest of the question.