Programme

This course aims to probe the ethical import of a personological view of self-narrativism that is well-entrenched in a naturalistic context. Against the backdrop of William James’ theory of the duplex self, the claim that we constitute ourselves as morally responsible agents (as ‘Lockean persons’) by forming and using autobiographical narratives is combined with Dan McAdams’ view of narrative identity as a layer of personality. During personality development, internalised and evolving stories of the self layer over other layers of personality, and this process of layering may be integrative. The process of self-representation originated from the I/Me dialectic, then, takes the form of what Jung identified as “individuation”, namely, a striving towards the unity of the various strata of personality. Such a process has an ethical dimension that is reminiscent of the ideal of eudaimonia, the discovery and actualization of one’s own unique potentials and talents.

Core Documentation

A. Kind, Persons and Personal Identity, Polity Press, Cambridge 2015.

Type of evaluation

Verification of learning takes place through an oral exam. Is it possible to write a 3,000-word final paper (in Italian or English) to be discussed in the exam. Students are required to get their paper topics approved by the instructor.