White The Decline of the Individual

Reconciling Autonomy with Community
1. Auflage 2017
ISBN: 978-3-319-61750-3
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 154 Seiten, eBook

Reihe: Progress in Mathematics

This book explores the steady decline in the status of the individual in recent years and addresses common misunderstandings about the concept of individuality. Drawing from psychology, neuroscience, technology, economics, philosophy, politics, and law, White explains how and why the individual has been devalued in the eyes of scholars, government leaders, and the public. He notes that developments in science have led to doubts about our 
cognitive competence
, while assumptions made in the humanities have led to questions about our 
moral competence
. In this book, White goes on to argue that both of these views are mistaken and that they stem from overly simplistic ideas about how individuals make choices, however imperfectly, in their interests, which are multifaceted and complex. In response, he proposes a new way to look at individuals that preserves their essential autonomy while emphasizing their responsibility to others, inspired by the moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant and the legal and political philosophy reflected in the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution. This book explains how individuality combines both rights and responsibilities, reconciles the popular yet false dichotomy between individual and society, and provides the basis for a humane and respectful civil society and government.
 
This book is part of White's trilogy on the individual and society, which includes 
The Manipulation of Choice
 and 
The Illusion of Well-Being
.

Zielgruppe

Popular/general

Autoren/Hrsg.

White, Mark D.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction.- 2. The Individual in Psychology, Neuroscience, and Economics.- 3. Big Data, Algorithms, and Quantification.- 4. Individual in Essence, Social in Orientation.- 5. Balancing the Individual and Society in Law and Politics.- 6. Conclusion.

Über Autor(innen)

Mark D. White is Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York, USA, where he teaches courses in economics, philosophy, and law. He is the author of six books, including 
The Manipulation of Choice
(2013) and
The Illusion of Well-Being
(2015). White is the editor of Palgrave's Perspectives from Social Economics series.