Substantialisation and the plurality of the self

Abstract

This paper focuses on two broad categories of amenders of the classical self, namely Kenneth Gergen’s abolition of the self and Charles Taylor’s transformation of the self. After the heyday of behaviourism it became fashionable again to speak of “intentions” as a cause of human action. Recent manifestations of this sometimes emphasise a holistic view and more often posit a coreless pluralism as the self. In the case of Gergen, this attempt lapses into a monistic substantialisation of the relational side of the self; in the case of Taylor, into a moderate dualism with the interpretative capacity of the self taking the substantialised position. As an alternative I propose a dimensional anthropology that sees the self as consisting of a coherent plurality of dimensions of equal agency.