Difference and subjectivity : dialogue and personal identity

Bibliographic Information

Difference and subjectivity : dialogue and personal identity

Francis Jacques ; translated by Andrew Rothwell

Yale University Press, c1991

Other Title

Différence et subjectivité

Uniform Title

Différence et subjectivité

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Note

Translation of: Différence et subjectivité. c1982

Includes bibliographical references (p. 355-365) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

This prize-winning book, first published in France in 1982 and now available in an English translation, investigates the question of human subjectivity. Francis Jacques shows that this question, far from becoming outmoded or irrelevant, remains of central significance for philosophy and the social sciences. Jacques takes issue with two commonly held philosophical views about the self: that the subject really doesn't exist at all, and that the relationship between the subject and others is not important. Jacques develops a relational model of the subject; personal identity, he says, is largely defined in the course of communicating with others. And the self, or subject, must not only identify both parties to the conversation ("you" and "me"), but also the absent third party ("him" or "her"). To critique the views with which he disagrees and to support his own argument, Jacques draws upon linguistics, literary criticism, theories of artificial intelligence, communication theory, psychoanalysis, and theology, applying logic to works as diverse as "Walden" and "Alice in Wonderland".

Table of Contents

  • A communicational approach to the person
  • num quid et tu?
  • man without qualities
  • primum relationis
  • the grand illusion
  • the heart of the subject
  • difference and differentiation.

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