Autobiography As Philosophy: the Philosophical Uses of Self
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Autobiography as Philosophy Since Plato a surprisingly large number of philosophers have chosen to write in the first person about their own lives, either in works that were primarily autobiographical or in the context of other more conventionally written texts. These texts stand in marked contrast to the bulk of philosophical writing, particularly in the past century during which the discipline has become ever more professionalized and specialized. Instead of the common impersonal and argumentative forms of ordinary philosophic discussion, these autobiographical texts are deeply personal and largely narrative or explanatory. The contributors to this book examine the philosophical signifi- cance of philosophers’ autobiographies and whether or not there are broadly philosophical tasks for which this sort of writing is particularly suited. Autobiography as Philosophy contains a general discussion about the relation between philosophical and autobiographical writing, and essays on the specific writings of Augustine, Abelard, Montaigne, Descartes, Vico, Hume, Rousseau, Newman, Mill, Nietzsche, Collingwood and Russell by specialists on the works of these individuals. The book is original and distinctive in its efforts to think about the writings of historically recognized philosophers as communicative acts governed by their own distinctive interests and purposes. It is, therefore as much about the texts and the authors as about their doctrines and arguments. As a result the book steps back from many of the issues of substantive philosophical discussion to reflect on certain forms of writing as means to philosophical ends, to consider what those ends have included. Thomas Mathien is Senior Lecturer and Associate Director of the Transitional Year Programme at the University of Toronto. He has written on explanation in sociology, philosophy of history, the definition of disci- plines and the history of philosophy in Canada. D. G. Wright is currently a professor of Humanities at Humber College in Toronto. He has recently published work on Nietzsche, Rousseau and Montaigne. Routledge Advances in the History of Philosophy 1 Concepts and Reality in the History of Philosophy Tracing a Philosophical Error From Locke to Bradley Fiona Ellis 2 Autobiography as Philosophy The philosophical uses of self-presentation Edited by Thomas Mathien and D. G. Wright Autobiography as Philosophy The philosophical uses of self-presentation Edited by Thomas Mathien and D. G. Wright First published 2006 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY10016 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2006 Thomas Mathien and D. G. Wright editorial matter and selection; the contributors and their contributions All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Autobiography as philosophy : the philosophical uses of self-presentation / edited by Thomas Mathien and D.G. Wright. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-415-32704-0 (hardback) 1. Philosophers--Biography--History and criticism. 2. Autobiography. 3. Philosophical literature--History and criticism. I. Mathien, Thomas. II. Wright, D. G., 1969- B104.A98 2006 107.2--dc22 2005028330 ISBN10: 0-415-32704-0 ISBN13: 978-0-415-32704-6 Contents List of contributors vii Introduction 1 THOMAS MATHIEN AND D. G. WRIGHT 1 Philosophers’ autobiographies 14 THOMAS MATHIEN 2 The Confessions of Saint Augustine: accessory to grace 31 SAMANTHA THOMPSON 3 Who is Peter Abelard? 64 CALVIN G. NORMORE 4 Philosophy without heroism: Montaigne and the vanity of autobiography 76 D. G. WRIGHT 5 Exile and philosophy: Descartes 97 ANDRÉ GOMBAY 6 Scrissela da filosofo: The Life of Giambattista Vico Written by Himself 109 DOMENICO PIETROPAOLO 7 Hume’s ‘‘Life’’ and the virtues of the dying 120 DONALD C. AINSLIE 8 Portraying nature: Rousseau’s Reveries as philosophy and art 141 EVE GRACE vi Contents 9 John Henry Newman and autobiographical philosophy 168 JAY NEWMAN 10 Mill’s autobiography 180 FRED WILSON 11 The subject of Nietzsche’s Ecce Homo 211 D. G. WRIGHT 12 R. G. Collingwood: philosophy as autobiography 230 LIONEL RUBINOFF 13 Is Bertrand Russell a logical fiction? 253 JOHN G. SLATER Index 266 Contributors Donald Ainslie is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto. He is the editor of Hume’s Treatise: Critical Essays (2002), and has published on Hume’s theory of knowledge, his theory of the self, and in the field of bioethics. André Gombay is Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto. His research interests include the philosophy of Descartes, Freud’s theory of mind, issues of responsibility in the philosophy of law, and the intellec- tual environment of the seventeenth-century philosophers. He co-directed the online edition of the Adam and Tannery collection of Descartes’ works, has co-edited a collection of essays on Descartes’ Passions of the Soul (2002) and has a book-length discussion of Descartes’ philosophy in press. Eve Grace is Associate Professor of Political Science at The Colorado College, Boulder, Colorado. Her field of interest is political theory, and, particularly, the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, on whom she has published extensively. She is the co-editor of Volume 9 of the Collected Writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Letter to Beaumont, Letters Written from the Mountain, and is completing a book on conscience in Rousseau’s thought. Thomas Mathien is Senior Lecturer and Associate Director of the Transitional Year Programme at the University of Toronto, and also teaches at the Mississauga Campus of that university. He has published on the philosophy of social science, the philosophy of history and the history of philosophy in Canada. Jay Newman is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Guelph. He has particular interests in philosophy of religion and philosophy of culture, and has published numerous books, among them: Foundations of Religious Tolerance (1982), The Mental Philosophy of John Henry Newman (1986), Fanatics and Hypocrites: On Religious Freedom (1991), Religion and Technology (1996), and Inauthentic Culture and its Philosophical Critics (1997). viii Contributors Calvin G. Normore is Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Philosophy Department at the University of California at Los Angeles. He has had previous or concurrent appointments at the University of Queensland, the University of Toronto, Ohio State University, Yale University, the University of California at Irvine, Columbia University, Princeton University and the University of Alberta. He has published and presented on a variety of topics in medieval and early modern philosophy, on the history of logic and on social and political theory. Much of his recent work has been on Abelard, Ockham’s logic, Descartes and the medieval sources of his thought, theories of the will, and future contingents. Domenico Pietropaolo holds the Emilio Goggio Chair in Italian Studies at the University of Toronto, and is Chair of the Department of Italian Studies there. He is interested in theatre history, dramaturgy, literary theory, Medieval studies, Vico, and seventeenth- and eighteenth-century thought – particularly on drama, censorship, history and literary theory. He has published extensively in these areas and served as an editor for collections on theater, Mediterranean culture and writing and Dante Studies in the Age of Vico. Lionel Rubinoff is Prefessor Emeritus in Philosophy and Environmental Studies at Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario. He has also held posi- tions at York University and the University of Toronto. He has published on R. G. Collingwood, on British idealism, on the philosophy of history and recently on environmental ethics. His books include critical editions of F. H. Bradley’s Presuppositions of Critical History, and of Collingwood’s papers on Philosophy of Religion (Faith and Reason) as well as the mono- graphs, The Pornography of Power: Collingwood and the Reform of Metaphysics, and Tradition and Revolution. He also coedited a collection of essays in the philosophy of history, Objectivity, Method and Point of View. John G. Slater is Professor Emeritus and former Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. His principal field of study has been the life and works of Bertrand Russell. He has published a brief introduction to Russell’s life and thought (Bertrand Russell), has edited five of the published volumes of The Collected Works of Bertrand Russell, and has co-edited a sixth. He assembled the definitive collection of print works by and on Bertrand Russell, now housed at the Thomas Fisher Library, University of Toronto, and has been associated with the Russell Archives at McMaster University, since they were assembled in 1968. Samantha Thompson is in