Narrative, Second-Person Experience, and Self-Perception

A Reason it is Good to Conceive of One’s Life Narratively

Bibliographic Data

ID10690885
AuthorsGrace Hibshman (0000-0003-4902-0419, University of Notre Dame, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume72
Issue3
Pages615-627
Publication date2022-06-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Philosophical Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0031-8094 • E-ISSN: 1467-9213
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/pq/pqab046
OpenAlexW3184973547
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited7

It is widely held that it is good to conceive of one's life narratively, but why this is the case has not been well established. I argue that conceiving of one's life narratively can contribute to one's flourishing by mediating to oneself a second-person experience of oneself, furnishing one with valuable second-personal productive distance from oneself and as a result self-understanding. Drawing on Eleonore Stump's theory that narratives re-present to their audiences the second-person experiences they depict, I argue that conceiving of one's life narratively facilitates taking on the second-person experience that an audience would have in hearing one's life narrative, mediating how someone from a second-person perspective might perceive oneself and as a result yielding valuable self-understanding. I conclude with some practical implications

Aesthetics · Epistemology · Flourishing · Narrative · Perception · Perspective (graphical) · Psychoanalysis · Self · Sociology · Computer Science · Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics · Hermeneutics and Narrative Identity · Identity, Memory, and Therapy · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology

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