Creative Being

"A person, I want to argue, is not a given but an achievement." So opens Eliot Deutsch's provocative study, a work that sets forth new possibilities for understanding the nature of creativity and the means by which human beings fashion themselves and their worlds. Professor Deutsch develops an innovative way of moving beyond the limitations of traditional rationalism, empiricism, and analytical philosophy of mind in order to frame a new conception of what it means to be a person. Drawing on Western traditions - including phenomenology, existentialism, pragmatism, and Gestalt psychology - as well as Eastern traditions - Hinduism, Buddhism, and Chinese philosophy - Deutsch pursues three main areas of inquiry. First, personhood itself is investigated through discussions of self-deception, the emotions, the body, and the nature of consciousness. Second, the fundamental ontological structures of being - space, time, causality - are explored. The relationships between language and reality and consciousness and the world are also analyzed. Third, Deutsch examines persons as moral, social, and political beings, revealing the ways in which a new conception of personhood discloses opportunities to realize the ideals of community participation. This volume refines, contextualizes, and updates the argument presented in Deutsch's Personhood, Creativity, and Freedom (1982). There are seven entirely new chapters as well as other additions, making this a significant contribution to the new discussion of human identity and action currently emerging in philosophical circles. Deutsch's lucid and elegant style will speak as well to a more general readership interested in humanistic issues.