Overview

Stephen Mulhall presents a series of multiply interrelated essays which together make up an original study of selfhood (subjectivity or personal identity). He explores a variety of articulations (in philosophy, psychoanalysis, and the arts) of the idea that selfhood is best conceived as a matter of non-self-identity--for example, as becoming or self-overcoming, or as being what one is not and not being what one is, or as being doubled or divided. Philosophically, a sustained reading of the work of Nietzsche and Sartre is central to this project, although Wittgenstein is also fundamental to its concerns; Mulhall therefore draws extensively on texts usually associated with 'Continental' philosophical traditions, primarily in order to test the feasibility of a non-elitist form of moral perfectionism. Within the arts, several essays examine various films whose themes intersect with those of the philosophers under study (including Hollywood melodramas, recent spy movies such as the Bourne trilogy and the latest incarnation of James Bond, and David Fincher's 'Benjamin Button'); Wagner's Ring cycle is a recurrent concern; and the novels of Kingsley Amis, J. M. Coetzee and David Foster Wallace are also prominent.

Full Product Details

Author:   Stephen Mulhall (New College, Oxford)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 1.90cm , Length: 23.30cm
Weight:   0.506kg
ISBN:  

9780198748229

ISBN 10:   0198748221
Pages:   348
Publication Date:   28 January 2016
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

Contents Introduction Dramatis Personae Exemplars of Identity: The Bearing of Proper Names in the Philosophical Investigations Smoking in Wartime: Sartrean Scenes I Orchestral Metaphysics: The Birth of Tragedy Between Drama, Opera and Philosophy The Metaphysics of (Secret) Agency Or: Three Ways of Not Being James Bond The Gamblers of Roulettenburg: Sartrean Scenes II The Melodramatic Reality of Film and Literature Or: Elizabeth Costello's Cinematic Sisters Fetters, Shadows and Circles: Freedom and Form in Human, All Too Human The Trials of Desire: Sartrean Scenes III Countering the Ballad of Co-Dependency: The Realistic Spirit of David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button The Promising Animal: The Art of Reading On the Genealogy of Morality as Testimony The Decipherment of Signs: Sartrean Scenes IV Quartet: Wallace's Wittgenstein, Moran's Amis Bibliography Filmography

Reviews

a philosophical-cum-literary tour de force. * Daniel D. Hutto, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews * In this brilliant collection of essays, Mulhall uncovers core concerns of philosophical writers . . . Readers interested in philosophy, literature, and film will benefit greatly from the guidance and verve of Britain's finest philosopher writing today. * Joshua Furnal, Church of England Newspaper *

In this brilliant collection of essays, Mulhall uncovers core concerns of philosophical writers ... Readers interested in philosophy, literature, and film will benefit greatly from the guidance and verve of Britain's finest philosopher writing today. Joshua Furnal, Church of England Newspaper a philosophical-cum-literary tour de force. Daniel D. Hutto, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

Author Information

Stephen Mulhall is a Professor of Philosophy, and a Tutorial Fellow of New College, Oxford. He was previously a Prize Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and a Reader in Philosophy at the University of Essex.

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