Rise and Fall of Modern Man

Award-winning essay in philosophical anthropology meditating on who, in terms of history of ideas, modern western man was, is, and will perhaps become. The author focuses on developments of modern man's self-knowledge, understood both as concept of his own human nature and as individual self-consciousness, made possible by the idea that each human being is an autonomous rational agent. The book examines how Selfhood and self-governed individuality connect to science and technology, and offers an imaginative exploration of various modern narratives of human singularity, from Robinson Crusoe to Zarathustra, and to contemporary individual Facebook profiles.

Autorentext

Jacek Dobrowolski studied Philosophy and Sociology at the University of Warsaw. A two-time final nominee in the Polish only philosophical essay contest, and winner of main award in 2014. He published three books in philosophical anthropology of modernity.

Inhalt

What is knowing oneself? - Ancient roots of self-knowledge and Plato's hoax - Modern idea of man's self-knowledge - Early modernity's Robinson Crusoe - Anthropology of mature modernity - Nietzsche's moustache - Musil's Man without qualities - Postmodern condition of self-knowledge: Facebook and the God-machine - The death of death.