Abstract

This ambitious book examines the conceptions of the human subject held by numerous Western thinkers from various disciplines. The study begins with Descartes and ends with Derrida. For the forty-six principal authors covered, Morris gives a brief biography, an overview of the author's thought in its historical context, an analysis of the author's theory of the human individual as presented in a major work, and a critique of that theory. Writers in addition to these forty-six are also discussed, but in less detail. As is not surprising in a work that spans the fields of philosophy, psychology, anthropology, sociology, and sociobiology, the expositions and critiques rely considerably on secondary sources.