Western conceptions of the individual /

The elusive nature of the human subject has provided an abundant basis for discussions in both the social sciences and the humanities. Working within a largely anthropological tradition, Morris (Goldsmith's College, University of London) examines these discussions with considerable acumen. Though Morris's text is too general for the specialist, it is 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. Morris's style is informal, and his survey devotes a chapter to each of the following: mechanistic philosophy (Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Hume); psychology of the will (Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Freud); empiricism (Darwin, Skinner, Wittgenstein); neo-Kantian perspectives (Dilthey, Wundt, Mead); the Hegelian-Marxist tradition; the sociological tradition (especially Durkheim); pragmatism and symbolic interactionism (James, Dewey, Goffman); critical theory and psychoanalysis (the Frankfurt School); phenomenology and existentialism (Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty); structuralism and poststructuralism (Levi-Strauss, Piaget). Morris's text is comparable to, though more complete than, Leslie Stevenson's Seven Theories of Human Nature (1974) and would serve as a useful companion volume to a text such as Donald C. Abel's Theories of Human Nature: Classical and Contemporary Readings (1992). H. Storl; Augustana College