Description
Book SynopsisAddresses ‘what it means to be human’ in a secular, post-Enlightenment world by exploring notions of self and subjectivity in Islamic and non-Islamic philosophical and mystical thought.
Table of Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I
- I. The Problematic of the Self Is the Self a Modern Invention?
- The Opacity of the Self
- Degrees and Dimensions of Selfhood
- First-person vs. Third-person Perspective
- Descriptive vs. Normative Approaches
- A Multi-dimensional Model
- Overcoming the Terminological Fray
- Summary
- II. The View from and beyond the 'I' The Paradox of Self-knowledge
- Non-reflective Self-knowledge
- Self-knowledge as Abiding Presence
- The Varieties of Non-reflective Self-knowledge
- The Kantian Dilemma
- Summary
- III. Self-knowledge and the Levels of Consciousness
- The Humean Challenge and the Referentiality of the “I”
- Onto-phenomenological Structure of Consciousness
- What is It Like to Be a Self?
- Unity of Self and Consciousness
- Summary
- Part II
- IV. Self, Body, and Consciousness
- Consciousness in Neuroscience
- Neurobiological Theories of Consciousness
- The Center of the Self: Neurons or Consciousness?
- The Nerve Impulse and the Structure of Consciousness
- Graeco-Islamic-Indian Conversations
- Deciphering the Self through the Subtle Bodies
- Emotion and Subjectivity
- Summary
- V. Sculpting the Self
- Philosophy, Spirituality, and Self-knowledge
- Self-cultivation and Human Flourishing
- Self-perfection and the Ideal Self
- Meditation and Self-transparency
- Self-transcendence and Transformation
- Self, Freedom, Being-toward-beyond-death
- Summary
- VI. Consummation: 'I or I and I
- Bibliography
- Index Locorum
- Index of Names
- Index of Subjects
