The Social Self

David Bakhurst works primarily in three areas: Russian Philosophy, philosophicalpsychology, and moral philosophy. In 1991, he published a study of the philosophical culture of the USSR, Consciousness and Revolution in Soviet Philosophy (Cambridge University Press), focused on the life and work of Evald Ilyenkov (1924-79). Ilyenkov, like the renowned psychologist Lev Vygotsky, maintains that each individual mind is formed through initiation into culture. Bakhurst explores this idea in many recent publications and examines parallel views in the thought of such thinkers as Wittgenstein and Jerome Bruner. His ethical writings include several papers on moral realism and ethical particularism. Educated at Keele, Moscow, and Oxford, Bakhurst studied with Jonathan Dancy, Felix Mikhailov, and John McDowell. He has twice held visiting fellowships in Oxford, most recently at All Souls College (2001-02). In 2003, he was appointed to an honorary chair in the School of Education at the University of Birmingham, UK.

Introduction - David Bakhurst and Christine Sypnowich Problems of the Social Self Meaning and Self in Cultural Perspective - Jerome Bruner Wittgenstein and Social Being - David Bakhurst What a Vygotskian Perspective Can Contribute to Contemporary Philosophy of Language - Ellen Watson The Soviet Self - Felix Mikhailov A Personal Reminiscence Death in Utopia - Christine Sypnowich Marxism and the Mortal Self The Social Self in Political Theory - Stephen Mulhall and Adam Swift The Communitarian Critique of the Liberal Subject The Gendered Self - Diana Coole Becoming Women/Women Becoming - Helene Keyssar Film and the Social Construction of Gender Why Multiple Personality Tells Us Nothing about the Self/Mind/Person/Subject/Soul/Consciousness - Ian Hacking