February 22-23, 2013
"Narrative Self, Lyric Self, Absent Self: Literary, Psychological, and Philosophical Approaches to Self-Fashioning."

Which is more important: the harmony of a soul or the arc of a life? Does unified selfhood mean overcoming inner division or does it mean overcoming change across time, linking together a series of discrete episodes into a single coherent narrative? And is unity (of either sort) something we should want in the first place?

Philosophers, psychologists, and literary theorists come together to discuss these questions at Stanford in February, 2013. At issue: what personal identity might consist in; why we might want it (or not); how literary models—both lyric and narrative—can help to guide us; and how much depends, in all cases, on other people.

Cosponsored by the School of Humanities and Sciences, the Department of Philosophy, and the Stanford Humanities Center

For more information, visit http://philit.stanford.edu/events.html