Love, Friendship, and the Self

Intimacy, Identification, and the Social Nature of Persons
1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-0-19-964256-4
Verlag: OUP Oxford

Buch, Englisch, 334 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 509 g

Recent Western thought has consistently emphasized the individualistic strand in our understanding of persons at the expense of the social strand. Thus, it is generally thought that persons are self-determining and autonomous, where these are understood to be capacities we exercise most fully on our own, apart from others, whose influence on us tends to undermine that autonomy. Love, Friendship, and the Self argues that we must reject a strongly
individualistic conception of persons if we are to make sense of significant interpersonal relationships and the importance they can have in our lives. It presents a new account of love as intimate identification and of friendship as a kind of plural agency, in each case grounding and analyzing these notions in terms of
interpersonal emotions. At the center of this account is an analysis of how our emotional connectedness with others is essential to our very capacities for autonomy and self-determination: we are rational and autonomous only because of and through our inherently social nature. By focusing on the role that relationships of love and friendship have both in the initial formation of our selves and in the on-going development and maturation of adult persons, Helm significantly alters our
understanding of persons and the kind of psychology we persons have as moral and social beings.

Zielgruppe

Students and scholars of philosophy; psychologists interested in emotions, the self, and personal relationships.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Helm, Bennett W.

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Allgemeine Psychologie Kognitionspsychologie Emotion, Motivation, Handlung
• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Allgemeine Psychologie Differentielle Psychologie, Persönlichkeitspsychologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Psychologie / Allgemeines & Theorie Psychologische Theorie, Psychoanalyse Philosophische Psychologie, Logotherapie, Existenzanalyse
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Philosophische Psychologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1: Introduction
Part I Caring
2: Agency, Emotions, and the Problem of Import
3: Caring about Others
Part II Loving
4: Values: Loving Oneself
5: Love As Intimate Identification
6: Justification and Non-Fungibility of Love
Part III Friendship and the Self
7: Paternalistic Love and External Reasons
8: Friends Are Other Selves
Postscript
Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Helm, Bennett W.
Bennett W. Helm is Professor of Philosophy at Franklin & Marshall College, Pennsylvania. His philosophical interests center around understanding the place of emotions and caring in our concept of a person. His work has received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation, and the American Council of Learned Societies.