Practical Identity and Narrative Agency

The essays collected in this volume address a range of issues that arise when the focus of philosophical reflection on identity is shifted from metaphysical to practical and evaluative concerns. They also explore the usefulness of the notion of narrative for articulating and responding to these issues. The chapters, written by an outstanding roster of international scholars, address a range of complex philosophical issues concerning the relationship between practical and metaphysical identity, the embodied dimensions of the first-personal perspective, the kind of reflexive agency involved in the self-constitution of one’s practical identity, the relationship between practical identity and normativity, and the temporal dimensions of identity and selfhood. In addressing these issues,contributors engage with debates in the literatures on personal identity, phenomenology, moral psychology, action theory, normative ethical theory, and feminist philosophy.

Contributors Acknowledgments 1. Introduction: Practical Identity and Narrative Agency Catriona Mackenzie Part I: Personal Identity and Continuity 2. Staying Alive: Personal Continuation and a Life Worth Having Marya Schechtman 3. Personal Identity: Practical or Metaphysical? Caroline West 4. Narrative Identity and Embodied Continuity Kim Atkins Part II: Practical Identity and Practical Deliberation 5. Personal Identity Management Jan Bransen 6. Imagination, Identity and Self-Transformation Catriona Mackenzie 7. Why Search for Lost Time: Memory, Autonomy, and Practical Reason John Christman Part III: Selfhood and Normative Agency 8. The Way of the Wanton J. David Velleman 9. Losing One's Self Cheshire Calhoun 10. Normative Agency Jeanette Kennett and Steve Matthews 11. Remorse and Moral Identity Christopher Cordner Part IV: Selfhood, Narrative and Time 12. Shaping a Life: Narrative, Time and Necessity Genevieve Lloyd 13. How to Change the Past Karen Jones

Catriona Mackenzie is Associate Professor in Philosophy at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. She is also author of Relational Autonomy: Feminist Perspectives on Autonomy, Agency and the Social Self.