The Politics and Ethics of Identity: In Search of Ourselves (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781107675575)

We are multiple, fragmented, and changing selves who, nevertheless, believe we have unique and consistent identities. What accounts for this illusion? Why has the problem of identity become so central in post-war scholarship, fiction, and the media? Following Hegel, Richard Ned Lebow contends that the defining psychological feature of modernity is the tension between our reflexive and social selves. To address this problem Westerners have developed four generic strategies of identity construction that are associated with four distinct political orientations. Lebow develops his arguments through comparative analysis of ancient and modern literary, philosophical, religious, and musical texts. He asks how we might come to terms with the fragmented and illusionary nature of our identities and explores some political and ethical implications of doing so.

Author: Richard Ned LeBow
ISBN-10: 110767557X
ISBN-13: 9781107675575
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 03/20/2014
Pages: 444
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.30lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.90d