Normative Identity

Per Bauhn is Professor of Practical Philosophy at Linnaeus University, Sweden. His publications in English include Ethical Aspects of Political Terrorism (1989), Nationalism and Morality (1995), and The Value of Courage (2003).

In this brief, accessible, well-documented book, Bauhn (Linnaeus Univ., Sweden) examines how normative identities—which give choices and lives subjective meaning and value—can also solve the supposed “is-ought” problem and give objective meaning and moral value. With wide-ranging examples from philosophy, history, literature, aesthetics, religion, and politics, the book provides a rich understanding of the role and significance of normative identities in personal and communal lives. It aligns especially with a Gewirthian analysis of moral justification, providing what this reviewer considers to be one of the clearest and least tedious expressions thereof…. Bauhn captures his thesis best in the book's last line: “The phenomena of identity and identification, often portrayed as antithetical to universalism and rationalism in ethics, can instead be shown to be capable of incorporating universalist morality, anchoring it in the pursuits of individual agents.” Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.

• Preface / 1. The Concept of Normative Identity / 2. The Need for Meaning / 3. The Narrative Conception of Self / 4. The ’Is’-’Ought’ Problem / 5. Normative Identity and Agency / 6. The Citizen Agent / 7. The Artist Agent / 8. Concluding Comments: Normative Identities for an Imperfect World / Works Cited / Index