Volume 51, Issue 1, Spring 2021
Austin Lawrence
Pages 51-67
https://doi.org/10.5840/idstudies2021324127
The Self as Activity
Beyond Reductionist and Non-Reductionist Theories of Selfhood
This paper aims to defend a dialectical account of selfhood in the context of the contemporary debates on personal identity in Anglo-American philosophy. I interpret Reductionism and Non-Reductionism¡ªthe two dominant positions in contemporary Anglo-American philosophy¡ªas forming something analogous to an antinomy. Reductionists argue that the self is merely an identity that is reducible to a set of facts, while Non-Reductionists argue that the self is a separate entity beyond any set of facts. I argue that a comprehensive view of the self requires aspects from both of these positions. The self, then, should be understood as an ongoing activity that relates the various features of one¡¯s identity together.