Research Information System
57th International Phenomenology Congress, İstanbul, Turkey, 18 - 22 June 2007, vol.101, pp.201-212
The basic question motivating this paper is the question of where we are to go from here. The answer of this question requires reflecting upon the different human possibilities that it is within our power to realize, upon the conditions of their possibility, and upon the ways in which they may variously support or exclude each other. In my opinion, such a reflection upon the human possibilities is necessary, since "where we are to go from here" is a question whose answer is more to be decided than discovered. However, where possibilities are considered in order to decide, choices must be made; this leads us directly to better life theory as social, cultural and critical/normative theory. In this context the problem I would like to consider is whether the notion of self-realization has a future, and whether can play a useful role in "better life theory".