{"product_id":"against-identity-the-wisdom-of-escaping-the-self","title":"Against Identity: The Wisdom of Escaping the Self","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat if the healthiest thing you could do is stop being yourself? A bracing philosophical case against our age of self-obsession.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe are told to find ourselves, express ourselves, be true to ourselves. Alexander Douglas thinks the greatest minds would call this a trap. Drawing on three thinkers separated by continents and centuries — the Daoist sage \u003cstrong\u003eZhuangzi\u003c\/strong\u003e, the radical philosopher \u003cstrong\u003eSpinoza\u003c\/strong\u003e, and the French theorist \u003cstrong\u003eRené Girard\u003c\/strong\u003e — he argues that our fixation on identity is the source of much of our anxiety, rivalry and unhappiness, and that a rich tradition of wisdom points the other way: toward escaping the self rather than endlessly curating it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA short, sharp antidote to the age of the personal brand.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch4\u003ePraise\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cblockquote\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e“Deeply interesting… a superb critique of contemporary self-obsession.”\u003c\/em\u003e — \u003cstrong\u003eGuardian\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\u003ch4\u003ePerfect for readers of\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cp\u003eOliver Burkeman's \u003cem\u003eFour Thousand Weeks\u003c\/em\u003e, Derek Parfit, the Stoics shelf — and anyone exhausted by the mirror.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch4\u003eAbout the author\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAlexander Douglas\u003c\/strong\u003e teaches philosophy at the University of St Andrews.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52050008768728,"sku":"9781802063318","price":899.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0818\/1471\/6632\/files\/9781802063318.jpg?v=1785271350","url":"https:\/\/www.readersparadise.co\/products\/against-identity-the-wisdom-of-escaping-the-self","provider":"Readers Paradise","version":"1.0","type":"link"}