Leo Damrosch

The Enlightenment Invention of the Modern Self

Matthew Royal

This course systematizes much of the sense of self you've collected from pop psychology and casual reading of classic novels. It feels highly selective rather than comprehensive, but it was a semi regular sequence of interesting moments, the best of which were Damrosch's synthesis, rather than his analysis of individual works. 

It ended very much with the sense that there is no consensus on "self," but at least 3 competing models of self, with mild criticism of an unidentified modern perspective. Rather than illuminating the "correct" idea of self to guide the listener in their own analysis, this material serves best as giving you stereotypes of "self philosophy" which you can use to categorize.

The Enlightenment Invention of the Modern Self

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