INTERSUBJECTIVE EXISTENCE : a critical reflection on the theory and the practice of selfhood

Intersubjective Existence , as the author notes, aims, first, to develop a wisdom about human life that takes the form of a theory of selfhood and, second, to reflect on what is called for in the ethical practice of human existence. Secondly, the ethical implications of this theory of selfhood are explored, specifically looking at conscience, prudential reasoning, justice, friendship, the law, temperance, courage, and concluding with a brief treatment of religion. Olivia Blanchette charts the path of his inquiry through an analysis of reflective self-consciousness in selves communing with one another. They are constituted in their substance as a union of body and soul, with intelligence and free will that give rise to cultures in communion with other selves. These cultures are over and above what is given to each self in sense consciousness and in sense appetites and which each one contends with in the exercise of selfhood and the rights that go with that in keeping with justice. Concern for right reasoning and justice leads to an analysis of temperance and courage. The chief arguments take the form of phenomenological reflections on the building blocks of the perennial philosophy. Blanchette recasts Aristotelian-Thomistic metaphysics from the perspective of a phenomenology of the mutual recognition of agents and the historical consciousness to which it gives rise. Contents I. Critical Reflection on the Theory tf Selfhood Introduction 1. The Primordial Fact of Human Existence 2. The Human Self as a Substance Existing in Historical Tension with Itself and with Other Human Selves 3. The Substance of Human Selfhood as Union of Body and Soul Understood as Composite of Matter and Form 4. The Human Soul as Truly, but Not Purely, Spiritual in Its Subsistence 5. The Elevation of Human Selfhood in Its Communal Existence into a Spiritual Existence in Its First- and Second-Person Ontology through the Empowerment of Intelligence and Free Will II. Critical Reflection on the Practice Of Selfhood 6. Conscience, Responsibility, and the Human Good as Second Perfection of Selfhood 7. Freedom and the Necessity of Right Reasoning in Ethical Consciousness 8. The Necessity of Justice and Friendship in the Will as Rational Appetite for a Communal Good 9. The Necessity of Authority and Law in the Free and Communal Exercise of Self-determination 10. The Necessity of Courage and Temperance as Dispositions in the Sense Appetites of Ethical Consciousness for a Rational Participation in the Communal Good Conclusion Index Attempts to develop a wisdom about human life that takes the form of a theory of selfhood and to reflect on what is called for in the ethical practice of human existence. The ethical implications of this theory of selfhood are explored, looking at conscience, prudential reasoning, justice, friendship, the law, temperance, courage, and religion.