Modernity and the problem of self-understanding

Abstract

This thesis investigates central issues of self-understanding in modern western society. Given that modernity is defined and grasped in terms of the postulate of human autonomy these issues are central to sociological theory and the historical sociology of modern society.The development of self-understanding is presented, firstly, through a study of the nature and development modern rational science. The success of the natural sciences since the seventeenth century has provided a particular model of rational investigation which has proved influential for every form of knowledge in modern society. The thesis is concerned primarily with the impact of the scientific world view on human self-understanding in terms of the content of its view of nature rather than its methodological position. The social dimension of scientific knowledge comes into prominence in this perspective as does the relation of science to both pre-modern and novel non-rational forms of human self-understanding.The continuity of modern and pre-modern conceptions of human being is investigated through a discussion of the historical transformation of religion in western society. As distinct from any view of modernity as a process of secularization, a focus on existential aspects of self-understanding makes clear both the persistence and novel form of religious traditions for modern selfunderstanding.These larger historical studies are followed by two detailed monographic works in which issues of modern psychology are treated in detail. The writings of Kierkegaard and Freud are dealt with as rich sources of distinctive psychological insight into modern experience which indicate alternative traditions of modernity. In different ways and from quite different perspectives Kierkegaard and Freud focus on the contradictory and paradoxical character of modern selfhood and personal identity.The thesis is further illustrated by an outline of an historical sociology of the body-image.LIST OF PUBLICATIONS: BOOKS: Ferguson, Harvie (1983) Essays in Experimental Psychology London, Macmillan. • (1990) The Science of Pleasure: Cosmos and Psyche in the Bourgeois World View London, Routledge. • (1992) Religious Transformation in Western Society, The End of Happiness London, Routledge. • (1994) Melancholy and the Critique of Modernity: Soren Kierkegaard's Religious Psychology London, Routledge. • (1996) The Lure of Dreams: Sigmund Freud and the Construction of Modernity London, Routledge. • (1997) Destino Delia Felicita: trasformazione Religiosa Nella Societa Occidentale Genoa, ECIG. • •

ARTICLES: Ferguson, Harvie (1983) 'Reclusione e Infanzia: Aspetti di Un'Utopia', Rassegna Ltaliana de Sociologia, vol. XXIV, no.3. • (1989) 'Sigmund Freud and the Pursuit of Pleasure', in C. Rojek (ed.) Leisure for Leisure: Critical Essays, London, Macmillan. • (1992) 'Watching the World Go Round: Atrium Culture and the Psychology of Shopping', in R. Shields (ed.) Lifestyle Shopping, London, Routledge. • (1997) 'Me and My Shadows: on the accumulation of body-images in western society Part One - The Image and the Image of the Body in Pre-modern Society', Body and Society, vol.3, no.3. • (1997) 'Me and My Shadows: on the accumulation of body-images in western society Part Two - Corporeal Forms of Modernity', Body and Society, vol.4, no.3. • (1998) 'Sigmund Freud and the Dynamics of Modernity', in Anthony Elliott (ed) Freud 2000, Cambridge, Polity Press.