On Self-Identity in High Modern Age

Description

Modernity is usually understood from the perspective that science and technology allow successful control over processes in the domains of nature, society and psyche. As a consequence humans are no longer immersed in an extrinsically given world order, in which their identity is determined by the place they take in their by traditions governed communities. They see themselves as beings that can shape the specific lives they live by themselves. One of the ways in which then one’s identity may find expression is a life story. In the modern era the psychological novel arises, in which contingent life events have to be placed in an order or plot necessary for the leading character to find his identity.

By now, modernizing processes have changed. The success of simple or linear control, envisaged by modern humans, has brought about a new type of uncontrollability that is intrinsic to the modern attitude itself. It has become inevitable for humans to reflect upon what it means to be modern. Narrative identity undergoes a significant change. One’s being a self has become a reflexive project, in which one has to construct the trajectory of one’s life in the form of a biography of the self. When one fails to accomplish this task, one is befallen by a suffering from an existential condition of burnout.

Our high modern culture may be characterised as a period in which a people are suffering from a loss of direct contact with what it entails to experience meaningfulness, or what it needs to lead a good life. How should one respond to this, without losing the rewards of actually being modern? One of the possible replies will be the claim that it will be necessary to have societal structures which do not give an answer to the question what it means to have an identity, but that are able to support humans to keep this question alive as a question.

The aim of this course is to become acquainted with a selected number of philosophical texts that address the question: what can be meant if one speaks of a ‘self’ in high modernity? More specific:

(i) Has the way in which people acquire a narrative identity changed during the transition from modernity to high modernity?

(ii) What can in our time be learnt from Hegel’s thoughts on freedom, self-relatedness and self-realization?

(iii) How can we live an ethical life in high modernity? E.g. by giving up total control in favour of receptivity? Or by institutionalizing how to endure continual self-reflection?

Practical information

Primary target group ReMA students
If places available also open to PhD researchers
Type of activity Course
Certificate credit points 6 ECTS
Organizer Maarten Coolen (University of Amsterdam)
Location
Date February 10, 2025 @ 15:00
Venue University of Amsterdam, Room TBA

Program

The program consists of one introductory meeting (for making arrangements) on Monday 3 February 2025, and 6 regular sessions on the Mondays 10, 17 and 24 February, and 3, 10 and 17 March 2025, always from 15:00 until 18:00.

  1. Monday February 3 (15:00-18:00): Introductory meeting and organization of the seminar
  2. Monday February 10 (15:00-18:00): Narrative identity, in two forms: (i) interpretative life story, (ii) constructed biography.
  3. Monday February 17 (15:00-18:00): Must we let go the idea of controllability of our lives in order to let them be meaningful?
  4. Monday February 24 (15:00-18:00): Hegel on modern freedom; and an introduction to his philosophy of right.
  5. Monday March 3 (15:00-18:00): Actualizing freedom in modern society on three levels: ‘family’, ‘civil society’ and ‘state’.
  6. Monday February 10 (15:00-18:00): Institutionalizing continuous reflection on what it is to have a self.
  7. Monday February 17 (15:00-18:00): Articulation of identity, and of what makes life meaningful and good.

Preparation and assessment

Readings (listed per session):

Monday February 3 (15:00-18:00):

  • [Not required, only optional] Han, B.-C. 2015. The Burnout Society. Translated by E. Butler. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Original Title: Müdigkeitsgesellschaft, 2010. Especially Pages 8-11, 35-51.

Monday February 10 (15:00-18:00):

  • Ricoeur, P. 1991. ‘Narrative Identity’. Philosophy Today 35 (1): 73-81.
  • Giddens, A. 1991. Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Polity Press. [Introduction, chapter 1.]

Monday February 17 (15:00-18:00):

  • Rosa, H. 2020. The Uncontrollability of the World. Translated by J. C. Wagner. Cambridge, UK ; Medford, MA: Polity Press. Original Title: Unverfügbarkeit, 2018. [Whole book.]

Monday February 24 (15:00-18:00):

  • Hegel, G. W. F. 2008. Outlines of the Philosophy of Right. Translated by T. M. Knox. Revised, edited and introduced by Stephen Houlgate. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press. Original Title: Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts. Only use this English edition! [Sections 5-7, and other sections still to be announced.]
  • Houlgate, S., Introduction, in book mentioned above.
  • For those students who prefer to read Hegel in German, choose the edition: Hegel, G.W.F. 1986. Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts, oder Naturrecht und Staatswissenschaft im Grundrisse: Mit Hegels eigenhändigen Notizen und den mündlichen Zusätzen. Herausgegeben von E. Moldenhauer & K. M. Michel. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. Only use this German edition!

Monday March 3 (15:00-18:00):

  • Peperzak, A. T. 2001. Modern Freedom: Hegel’s Legal, Moral, and Political Philosophy. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. [A few selected passages, which will be available as handout].
  • Hegel, G. W. F. 2008. Outlines of the Philosophy of Right [sections to be announced].

Monday February 10 (15:00-18:00):

  • Schelsky, H. 1965. ‘Can Continual Reflection Be Institutionalized?’. Cross Currents 15 (2): 171-189. Translated (more or less) by H. Frommelt and G. Roy. Original Title: ’Ist die Dauerreflexion institutionalisierbar?’, (1957). In: Auf Suche nach Wirklichkeit: 250-275. Düsseldorf & Köln: Diederichs, 1965.
  • Coolen, M., [Lecture notes on:] ›How Can Continual Self-Reflection Be Incorporated in High Modern ›Ethical Life‹?‹.

Monday February 17 (15:00-18:00):

  • Taylor, C. 1989. Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. [Chapters 1–4].

Assessment:

Students prepare 2-4 questions for each session in small subgroups. At the end of the course students write a short final paper (± 3000 words).

Costs and registration

Costs:

  • Free for ReMA students who are a member of the OZSW and/or another research school in the Humanities (LOGOS)
  • Free for PhD candidates who are a member of the OZSW and/or another research school in the Humanites (LOGOS);
  • All others pay a tuition fee of 300 euros.

How to register:

Registration will open in November.

  • PhD researchers may apply for a waiting list (as the primary target group for this activity is ReMA students) by sending an email to

The registration deadline is January 20, 2025. If registration has been closed because the maximum amount of participants has been reached, you can submit your name to the waiting list by sending an email to . Please also indicate whether you are a ReMA student or PhD candidate and whether you are a member of the OZSW or not.

The OZSW registration and cancellation policy applies to this activity (to be found here).

Contact information

Name Maarten Coolen (University of Amsterdam)
Email