Metamorphosis of the multiple self
Alberto Melucci
Cambridge University Press eBooks July 13, 1996 DOI: 10.1017/cbo9780511520907.004 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that modernity's myths of progress and liberty, which promised individual autonomy through technological dominion over nature, remain a powerful inheritance even as complexity and catastrophic risk have eroded optimism about salvation. Proposes that people still hold to the modern need and duty to exist as individuals, functioning both as purposive actors and as coordinates in networks of communality and communication, with information societies raising consciousness to new levels of reflexivity. |
Abstract
Nomads of the present Ever since its advent, the modern world has offered individual action an open field of possibility. The myths of progress and liberty have fed the Promethean dream of freeing mankind from natural constraints, by submitting nature to the dominion of technological power. Moreover, the promise of freedom has been extended to regard also the life of the individual, for whom it envisages an irresistible progress towards autonomy and full realization of the personal potential. These ideas have constituted the historical framework of modernity in all its variants, whether rationalist or Utopian, and, in spite of the vicissitudes of its career, this inheritance still encompasses the entire gamut of our hopes and our fears. The scenario of complexity, of a system which by now irreversibly incorporates the whole planet and, to an equal measure, faces a future jeopardized by prospects of catastrophe, has deeply eroded the optimism of the myths of salvation. None the less, we still hold on to the most exalting and dramatic legacy of modernity: our need and duty to exist as individuals . We, namely, can think of ourselves as subjects of action capable of purposive and meaningful behavior, but at the same time we also function as the coordinates in a network of communality and communication. Yet new dilemmas have arrived to beset the everyday lives of the children of disenchantment. In information societies our consciousness attains new levels of reflexivity.