Abstract
In this introduction chapter I begin by considering Stanley Cavell’s claim that there is an internal connection between philosophy and autobiography, exploring in particular the idea of the authority of a philosophical text. I then go on to sketch a philosophy of autobiography, discussing principally autobiography’s claim to be relating the truth about the author’s life. I end by suggesting that my reflections give us reasons for thinking that (at least some) philosophy can be autobiography.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Arendt, H. 1958 The Human Condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Benjamin, W. 1999 [1968] Illuminations. Translated by Harry Zorn, edited and introduced by Hannah Arendt. London: Pimlico.
Berger, J. 2016 [1967] A Fortunate Man: the Story of a Country Doctor. Edinburgh: Canongate.
Cavell, S. 1994 A Pitch of Philosophy: Autobiographical Exercises. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Cowley, C. 2014 The Philosophy of Autobiography. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Eakin, P.J. 1999 How Our Lives Become Stories: Making Selves. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Goldie, P. 2014 The Mess Inside: Narrative, Emotion, & the Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Glück, L. 2012 Poems 1962–2012. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux.
Gusdorf, G. 1980 ‘Conditions and Limits of Autobiography’ in Autobiography: Essays Theoretical and Critical, 28-48. Edited by James Olney. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Hampshire, S. 1989 Innocence and Experience. Harvard: Harvard University Press.
Lamarque, P. 2007 ‘On the Distance between Literary Narratives and Real-Life Narratives’ in Narrative and Understanding Persons, Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 60: 117–132.
Levi, P. 2007 [1986] I sommersi e i salvati. Torino: Einaudi.
Lloyd, G. 1986 ‘The Self as Fiction: Philosophy and Autobiography’. Philosophy and Literature, 10:2, 168–185.
Mulhall, S. 2013 ‘Autobiography and Biography’ in R. Eldridge (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Literature. New York: Oxford University Press.
Nietzsche, F. 1988b [1886] Jenseits von Gut und Böse in G. Colli and M. Montinari (ed.) Sämtliche Werke: Kritische Studienausgabe, 15 vols, Band 5. Berlin: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag.
Olney, J. 1980 ‘Autobiography and the Cultural Moment: A Thematic, Historical and Bibliographical Introduction’ in Autobiography: Essays Theoretical and Critical, 3-27. Edited by James Olney. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Pascal, R. 2015 Design and Truth in Autobiography. London: Routledge.
Ricks, C. 1998 Essays in Appreciation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rousseau, J.-J. 2008 [1789] Confessions. Translated by Angela Scholar. Edited and provided with an introduction and notes by Patrick Coleman. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Self, W. 2015 https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/08/on-the-move-a-life-oliver-sacks-review-autobiography-neurologist (last accessed 20 December 2016).
Serres, M. 1985 Les cinq sens. Paris: Grasset.
Spengemann, W.C. 1980 The Forms of Autobiography: Episodes in the History of a Literary Genre. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Stelzig, E. 1988 Hermann Hesse’s Fictions of the Self: Autobiography and the Confessional Imagination. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Sönke, W. and Welzer, H. 2011 Soldaten. Protokolle vom Kämpfen, Töten und Sterben. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag.
Stuart, F. 2014 https://quartetbooks.wordpress.com/2014/03/28/francis-stuart/ (last accessed 9 December 2020).
Warner, M. 2016 The Aesthetics of Argument. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Woolf, V. 2002 Moments of Being. Edited by Jeanne Schulkind and provided with an introduction by Hermione Lee. London: Pimlico.
Woolf, V. 2008 Selected Essays. Edited and provided an introduction and notes by David Bradshaw. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hamilton, C. (2021). Introduction: Who Is Speaking and to Whom?. In: Philosophy and Autobiography. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70657-9_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70657-9_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-70656-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-70657-9
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)