Abstract

This book has many virtues. It is that unusual philosophic work which can be enjoyed and savored as it is being read. In clear and literate jargon-free prose, it presents an incisive self-examination of one's own self that yet strikes deep at philosophic issues, even if some of these remain unexplicated. Displaying the work of an intelligent imagination that is at home in history as well as in literature and mythology, it is an intensely personal book pursuing a systematic introspection. The author seeks out the ground of possibility of his own self-hood--and finds it in the necessity of an appreciative appropriation of his cultural heritage that is crucially present in any moment of his experiential present.