Nora Hämäläinen is Docent and University Researcher at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She is the author of Descriptive Ethics: What Does Moral Philosophy Know about Morality? (2016) and Literature and Moral Theory (2015).

"Hämäläinen’s book is unique in bringing out how popular self-help literature not only reflects but also shapes contemporary forms and ideals of moral personhood, being a place of constant moral renegotiation; an insight bought in dialogue with her clear analysis of philosophical concerns with self-transformation."Anne-Marie S. Christensen, University of Southern Denmark

• 1. Introduction Part 1: Reading the Self-help Culture 2. What is Self-help? 3. Plural Histories of Self-help 4. Self-help and Governmentality 5. We Have Always Been Governed Part 2: Philosophy as a Self-transformative Practice 6. Transformative Hopes in Philosophy 7. Pierre Hadot – Philosophy as a Spiritual Practice 8. Foucault’s Two Faces? 9. Murdoch’s Platonic Ascent 10. Wittgenstein’s Therapy 11. Cavell’s Ethics of Becoming 12. Ways Forward

Nora Hämäläinen is Docent and University Researcher at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She is the author of Descriptive Ethics: What Does Moral Philosophy Know about Morality? (2016) and Literature and Moral Theory (2015).

"Hämäläinen’s book is unique in bringing out how popular self-help literature not only reflects but also shapes contemporary forms and ideals of moral personhood, being a place of constant moral renegotiation; an insight bought in dialogue with her clear analysis of philosophical concerns with self-transformation."Anne-Marie S. Christensen, University of Southern Denmark

• 1. Introduction Part 1: Reading the Self-help Culture 2. What is Self-help? 3. Plural Histories of Self-help 4. Self-help and Governmentality 5. We Have Always Been Governed Part 2: Philosophy as a Self-transformative Practice 6. Transformative Hopes in Philosophy 7. Pierre Hadot – Philosophy as a Spiritual Practice 8. Foucault’s Two Faces? 9. Murdoch’s Platonic Ascent 10. Wittgenstein’s Therapy 11. Cavell’s Ethics of Becoming 12. Ways Forward