Carl Olson is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Allegheny College. He has edited and authored 23 books and over 265 book reviews, journal essays, and essays in book anthologies. During his tenure at Allegheny College, Olson was appointed to The National Endowment for the Humanities Chair and Holder of the Teacher-Scholar Chair in the Humanities. From 2001 to 2002, Olson held a Visiting Fellowship at Claire Hall, University of Cambridge.

• PrefacePart 1 Past Approaches to the Problem of the Self1 Introduction1 Problematic Nature of Comparative Philosophy2 Indian Philosophy on the Nature of Error3 The Role of Error in Life4 Selected Western Thinkers and Error5 Error and Narrative6 Existence of the Self7 Preview of Future Chapters2 Narrative Theorists1 Ricoeur and Narrative Self2 Taylor and Narrative Self3 Dennett and the Narrative Self4 Anti-narrative Position of Strawson5 Strawson’s Concept of the Self6 Critical Critique of Thinkers7 Concluding Comments3 Postmodernism, Non-self, and Other1 Levinas and the Face of the Other2 Derrida and Deconstruction of the Self3 Deleuze and the Changing Self4 French Feminist Critique of the Self: Kristeva and Irigaray5 Non-Self and Buddhism6 Critical Critique of Postmodernists7 Concluding RemarksPart 2A Reconsideration of the Problem of the Self4 Journey, Place, Play, Escape, and Identity1 Space and Place2 Eastern Counterpoints to Tuan’s Notion of Place3 Remarks about the Nature of Play4 Escapism and Play5 The Hindu Theistic Mode of Escape6 The Daoist Mode of Adjusting7 Human Identity8 Concluding Remarks5 The Self and the Nightmare of History1 DeLillo and Historical Time2 Mitchell and Time3 Self, History, and Violence4 Reactions to the Terror of History5 The Absurdity of It All6 Self and Time in the Comparative Mode7 Time, Error, and the Postmodern Perspective8 Concluding Comments6 Self, Other, Body and God1 The Other2 The Self and Embodiment3 Flesh and Sexuality4 The Existence of the Wholly Other5 God, Nature, and Ecology6 Concluding Remarks7 Opps!1 Discovering Selfhood2 Identity Lost3 Identity Found4 Impersonal Identity5 False Identity6 Death and the Narrative Conclusion7 Stained Memory8 The Stain of Error9 Identity of the Self10 The Stain of Opps11 Paradoxical Aspects of the Self12 Play and Work13 Concluding RemarksBibliographyIndex