Giving an Account of Oneself

What does it mean to lead a moral life?
In her first extended study of moral philosophy, Judith Butler offers a provocative outline for a new ethical practice¿one responsive to the need for critical autonomy and grounded in a new sense of the human subject.
Butler takes as her starting point one¿s ability to answer the questions ¿What have I done?¿ and ¿What ought I to do?¿ She shows that these question can be answered only by asking a prior question, ¿Who is this ¿I¿ who is under an obligation to give an account of itself and to act in certain ways?¿ Because I find that I cannot give an account of myself without accounting for the social conditions under which I emerge, ethical reflection requires a turn to social theory.
In three powerfully crafted and lucidly written chapters, Butler demonstrates how difficult it is to give an account of oneself, and how this lack of self-transparency and narratibility is crucial to an ethical understanding of the human. In brillia