Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T09:42:14.899Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2021

Radu J. Bogdan
Affiliation:
Tulane University, New York
Get access

Summary

I begin with some disclaimers. A famous painting by René Magritte shows a pipe yet is mischievously titled (in French) “This is not a pipe.” (Magritte was a communist and a consistently humorous contrarian; I am just a contrarian and rarely humorous here.) The present book has the word “me” in the title and a good part of the text, and it has the word “self” and its various hyphenated combinations on almost every page, yet (no mischief intended) it is not actually, not centrally and not elaborately a book about the self, at least not in the analytic sense explored by philosophers or the empirical sense explored by neuroscientists, psychologists and social scientists. Nor, despite many and often detailed discussions of memory, particularly autobiographical memory, should the book be taken as a fresh contribution to memory research; the memory part is just a prop – albeit an important one – for the overall argument of the book. Nor, finally, despite its subtitle and frequent references and at times extended discussions, is the book really and centrally an analytically detailed and lavishly illustrated account of self-reflection as a mental practice – that is, an account of when and how people self-reflect, through what conceptual and linguistic means, in what concrete contexts, for what specific reasons and in pursuit of what particular goals.

Type
Chapter
Information
Why Me?
The Sociocultural Evolution of a Self-Reflective Mind
, pp. 1 - 8
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Introduction
  • Radu J. Bogdan
  • Book: Why Me?
  • Online publication: 28 May 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108999496.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Introduction
  • Radu J. Bogdan
  • Book: Why Me?
  • Online publication: 28 May 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108999496.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Radu J. Bogdan
  • Book: Why Me?
  • Online publication: 28 May 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108999496.001
Available formats
×