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Owen Flanagan - Self Expressions: Mind, Morals, and the Meaning of Life

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In this trailblazing collection of essays on free will and the human mind, distinguished philosopher Owen Flanagan seeks to reconcile a scientific view of ourselves with an account of ourselves as meaning makers and agents of free will. He approaches this old philosophical quagmire from new angles, bringing to it the latest insights of neuroscience, cognitive science, and psychiatry. Covering a host of topics, these essays discuss whether the conscious mind can be explained scientifically, whether dreams are self-expressive or just noise, the moral socialization of children, and the nature of psychological phenomena. Ultimately, Flanagan concludes that a naturalistic view of the self need not lead to nihilism, but rather to a liberating vision of personal identity which makes sense of agency, character transformation, and the value and worth of human life.

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title Self Expressions Mind Morals and the Meaning of Life author - photo 1

title:Self Expressions : Mind, Morals, and the Meaning of Life
author:Flanagan, Owen J.
publisher:Oxford University Press
isbn10 | asin:0195126521
print isbn13:9780195126525
ebook isbn13:9780585278353
language:English
subjectSelf, Identity (Psychology) , Life, Philosophy of mind, Psychology and philosophy.
publication date:1998
lcc:BF697.F575 1998eb
ddc:126
subject:Self, Identity (Psychology) , Life, Philosophy of mind, Psychology and philosophy.
Page iii
Self Expressions
Mind, Morals, and the Meaning of Life
Owen Flanagan
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York Oxford
Page iv
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogot Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Paris So Paulo Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan
Copyright (c) 1996 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
First published in 1996 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
http://www.oup-usa.org
1-800-334-4249
First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 1998
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Flanagan, Owen J.
Self expressions : mind, morals, and the meaning of life / Owen Flanagan
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-509696-7; 0-19-512652-1 (pbk.)
1. Self. 2. Identity (Psychology) 3. Life. 4. Philosophy of
mind. 5. Psychology and philosophy. I. Title.
BF697.F575 1996
126-dc20 95-5919
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
Page v
To Ruth Anna Putnam, David H. Sanford, and Kenneth P. Winkler
Page vii
Prologue
It has gradually dawned on me that the unity of my work, insofar as it has unity, lies in an underlying concern with identity, self, and self-expression. There is a story, of interest only to myself and my loved ones, about why I am so concerned with the problems of the self. But the short version involves my disenchantment with the transcendentalprecipitated when I was a teenager, when puberty met conventional Christian morality and theology.
My rejection of the idea of an immaterial soul required making sense of the mind, of my embodied self, really, in naturalistic terms. The idea that "if there is no God, then everything is allowed" worried me at the very same time that the prospect of everything being allowed elated me. But then there was the specter of nihilism. If everything is allowed, and if I am just an animal, and if my existence is just some very temporary cosmic accident, then what makes life worth living? Why does anything matter?
There at oncein a typical adolescent happenstance-I had my three problems: mind, morals, and the meaning of life.
The essays gathered here don't add up to a theory of the self, nor do they do anything like solve the problems of mind, morals, and meaning. Insofar as there is something like a theory presented here, some of its main tenets are these:
The word "self" has many meanings-personality, character, an individual's central character traits, the way(s) one carries oneself in the world, the way one represents oneself to oneself and to others, the dynamic integrated system of thoughts, emotions, lived events, and so on, that make up who one is from the God's eye point of view. All these senses are useful.
Page viii
The asymmetry between the first-personal question "Who am I?" and the third-personal question "Who is he?" matters greatly to the assessment of the worth of a life.
Whether a life is good, decent, happy, perceptive, self-deceived, and so on, depends in essential ways on the perspective.
Not all perspectives are equal. We need to talk, including to ourselves sub voce, about matters of the quality and direction and meaning of life.
We are animals. But we are self-creating in certain respects. How self-creation, self-control, and authorship are possible for animals like Homo sapiens can be explained. It is a nonmystery that "mysterians" like to spread magic dust over.
Our selves are complex, and we can change significantly over time but remain the same person.
What matters to identity preservation is that we are involved in making changes in our selves.
Self-control is at least as important as integration. That is, being in charge of your self matters as much, possibly more, than does being integrated or unified or consistent.
Self-knowledge is a good. But it is not necessary, to any high degree, for a good and meaningful life.
Self-knowledge does confer, however, a certain protection. Self-knowledge is a prophylactic that confers the "what-if" advantage, the "counter-factual advantage." It is wiser to wear it than not to.
Life's meaning comes, if it does come, from having chances to express and carry through on projects that matter, that have value and worth, first and third-personally.
Living meaningfully and living morally, as the latter is conventionally understood, can and do conflict.
Since morality is not sovereign, it is not always wrong to let considerations of meaning trump considerations of morality. Doing this, however, is risky.
But so too is letting some considerations of meaning trump other considerations of meaning. It is hard to find one's way. Life is tough. Play hard.
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