Western Conceptions of the Individual

This is a comprehensive study of the varying conceptions of the human subject in the Western intellectual tradition. Although informed by an anthropological perspective, the author draws on material from all the major intellectual disciplines that have contributed to this tradition and offers biographical and theoretical vignettes of all the major Western scholars. By scrutinizing the classical texts of the Western tradition, he succeeds in delineating the differing conceptions of the human individual which emerge from these writings, and gives a guide to the most important ideas in Western cultural traditions.

Brian Morris is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, at Goldsmiths College, University of London.

"... ideal for the reader who wishes to acquire a familiarity with influential Western accounts of human nature dating from the early 1600s to the present." --Choice

"One cannot but admire the breadth of learning and research reflected in this study." --The Review of Metaphysics