Philosophy and Autobiography: Reflections on Truth, Self-Knowledge and Knowledge of Others

Description

This book, taking its point of departure from Stanley Cavell’s claim that philosophy and autobiography are dimensions of each other, aims to explore some of the relations between these forms of reflection, first by seeking to develop an outline of a philosophy of autobiography, and then by exploring the issue from the side of five autobiographical works. Christopher Hamilton argues in the volume that there are good reasons for thinking that philosophical texts can be considered autobiographical, and then turns to discuss the autobiographies of Walter Benjamin, Peter Weiss, Jean-Paul Sartre, George Orwell, Edmund Gosse and Albert Camus. In discussing these works, Hamilton explores how they put into question certain received understandings of what philosophical texts suppose themselves to be doing, and also how they themselves constitute philosophical explorations of certain key issues, e.g. the self, death, religious and ethical consciousness, sensuality, the body. Throughout, there is an exploration of the ways in which autobiographies help us in thinking about self-knowledge and knowledge of others. A final chapter raises some issues concerning the fact that the five autobiographies discussed here are all texts dealing with childhood. Acknowledgements Contents Opening: The voice off in Philosophy Bibliography Introduction: Who Is Speaking and to Whom? Bibliography ‘The god of the city’: Walter Benjamin, Enchantment and the Material Subject Bibliography ‘An immense expenditure of energy come to nothing’: Philosophy, Literature and Death in Peter Weiss’ Abschied von den Eltern Bibliography ‘Someone is missing’: Jean-Paul Sartre, comédie and the Longing for Necessity Bibliography ‘How terrible is the deterioration in myself!’: Childhood, Middle Age and the Redemption of a Humanist in George Orwell’s ‘Such, Such Were the Joys’ Bibliography ‘Little soft oases’: Edmund Gosse, the Hard-Driven Soul and Inconsolability Bibliography ‘This book should be heavy with things and flesh’: The Body, Sensation and Love of the World in Camus’ Le Premier homme Bibliography Closing (Beginning with  an Abandoned Opening) Bibliography Bibliography Index