Synopses & Reviews
In this book, Norbert Wiley offers a new interpretation of the nature of the self in society. Current theories of the self tend to either assimilate the self to a community or larger collective, or reduce the self to body. In distinct opposition to these theories, Wiley makes the case for an autonomous self, a human being who is a repository of rights, a free and equal agent in a democracy consisting of other selves.
Drawing on a fresh synthesis of the writings of Charles Sanders Peirce, George Herbert Mead, and others, Wiley argues that the self can be seen as an internal conversation, or a "trialogue" in which the present self ("I") talks to the future self ("you") about the past self ("me"). A distinctive feature of Wiley's view is that there is a mutually supportive relation between the self and democracy, and he traces this view through American history. In finding a way to decenter the self without eliminating it, Wiley supplies an alternative to current theories of postmodernism, a much-needed closure to classical pragmatism, and a new direction to neo-pragmatism.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 232-245) and index.
Table of Contents
List of Figures and Tables
Preface
Author's Note
Acknowledgements
1: The Politics of Identity in American History
2: Peirce and Mead on the Semiotic Self
3: The Internal Conversation
4: Reflexivity
5: Solidarity
6: The Self as a Level
7: Upward Reduction
8: Downward Reduction
9: Conclusion
Bibliography
Index