Philosophy and Autobiography

This book seeks to explore relations starting from Stanley Cavell’s claim that philosophy and autobiography are dimensions of each other, first by seeking to develop a philosophy of autobiography, and then by exploring the issue from the side of six autobiographical works. This volume argues that there are good reasons for thinking that philosophical texts can be considered autobiographical, and then turns to discuss the autobiographies of Walter Benjamin, Peter Weiss, Jean-Paul Sartre, George Orwell, Edmund Gosse and Albert Camus. In exploring these works, this volume explores how they put into question certain received understandings of what philosophical texts suppose themselves to be doing, and also how they themselves constitute philosophical explorations of certain key issues, e.g. the self, death, religious and ethical consciousness, sensuality, the body. Throughout, there is an exploration of the ways in which autobiographies help us in thinking about self-knowledge and knowledge of others. A final chapter raises some issues concerning the fact that the six autobiographies discussed here are all texts dealing with childhood.

Key Features

• Pages: 194
• Publication date: 2021-10-20
• Language: EN

Imported by ISBN.