Practical Identity and Narrative Agency

Kim Atkins · Catriona Mackenzie

May 2013 · Routledge

About this ebook

The essays collected in this volume address a range of issues that arise when the focus of philosophical reflection on identity is shifted from metaphysical to practical and evaluative concerns. They also explore the usefulness of the notion of narrative for articulating and responding to these issues.

The chapters, written by an outstanding roster of international scholars, address a range of complex philosophical issues concerning the relationship between practical and metaphysical identity, the embodied dimensions of the first-personal perspective, the kind of reflexive agency involved in the self-constitution of one’s practical identity, the relationship between practical identity and normativity, and the temporal dimensions of identity and selfhood. In addressing these issues, contributors engage with debates in the literatures on personal identity, phenomenology, moral psychology, action theory, normative ethical theory, and feminist philosophy.

About the author

Catriona Mackenzie is Associate Professor in Philosophy at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. She is also author of Relational Autonomy: Feminist Perspectives on Autonomy, Agency and the Social Self.

Kim Atkins is lecturer in philosophy at the University of Tasmania, Australia. She is also editor of Self and Subjectivity. A Reader with Commentary and author of Narrative Identity and Moral Identity: A Practical Perspective.