The Politics and Ethics of Identity

In Search of Ourselves

Bibliographic Data

ID23798397
AuthorsRichard Ned Lebow (0000-0002-1972-141X, King's College London, corresponding author)
Year2012
Publication date2012-08-30
Open AccessYes
TypeBOOK
VenuePolitics and Ethics of Identity (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherCambridge University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/cbo9781139226578
OpenAlexW2289023366
ISBN9781139226578
LanguageEN
Citations received32

We are multiple, fragmented, and changing selves who, nevertheless, believe we have unique and consistent identities. What accounts for this illusion? Why has the problem of identity become so central in post-war scholarship, fiction, and the media? Following Hegel, Richard Ned Lebow contends that the defining psychological feature of modernity is the tension between our reflexive and social selves. To address this problem Westerners have developed four generic strategies of identity construction that are associated with four distinct political orientations. Lebow develops his arguments through comparative analysis of ancient and modern literary, philosophical, religious, and musical texts. He asks how we might come to terms with the fragmented and illusionary nature of our identities and explores some political and ethical implications of doing so.

Aesthetics · Epistemology · Hegelianism · Identity (music) · Identity politics · Modernity · Political science · Politics · Reflexivity · Scholarship · Social science · Sociology · Gender Studies · Law · Philosophy · Rhetoric and Communication Studies

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