Recent discussions of self-realization have devolved into unscientific theories of self-help. However, this vague and often misused concept is connected to many important individual and social problems. As long as its meaning remains unclear, it can be abused for social, political, and commercial malpractices. To combat this issue, this book shares perspectives from scholars of various philosophical traditions. Each chapter takes new steps in asking what the meaning of self-realization is¿both in terms of what it means to understand who or what one is, and also in terms of how one can, or should, fulfilll oneself. The conceptual elucidations achieved from both theoretical and practical perspectives allow for a more mature awareness of how to deal with discourses on self-realization and, in any case, can help to demystify the subject.

Offers the first modern, academic treatment of the topic of self-realization.

1. Introduction.- 2. Is There a True Self?.- 3. Non-Contextual Self : Husserl and Nishida on the Primal Mode of the Self.- 4. Habits and the Diachronic Structure of the Self.- 5. Is our Self Temporal? From the Temporal Features of the Brain's Neural Activity to Self-Continuity and Personal Identity.- 6. Self-Realization of the Economic Agent.- 7. The Unstoried Life.- 8. Muddling Through. An Episodic Conversation on Self, Narrativity, Transience, and other Pleasantries.- 9. Stoic Happiness as Self-Activity.- 10. Realizing Oneself by Realizing what One Really Wants to Do.- 11. Three Liberal Conceptions of Self-Realization: Creativity, Authenticity, and Flourishing.- 12. Rights and Persons.- 13. Achieving a Self-Satisfied Intimate Life through Computer Technologies.- 14. Nishida Kitaro, Takahashi Satomi, and the Schelerian Philosophy of Love.- 15. Self-Realization as Self-Abandonment.