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Palgrave Macmillan

Individualism and the Rise of Egosystems

The Extinction Society

  • Book
  • © 2023

Overview

  • Offers a socio-philosophical perspective on the behaviour of individuals in today's society in terms of egosystems
  • Provides unique tools to understand the (lack of) response to the present global threats
  • Addresses the main issues of contemporary civilization through the original interpretation of an extinction society

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Table of contents (5 chapters)

Keywords

About this book

This book is a socio-philosophical journey across several aspects of our society’s focus on individual freedom, taking cues from some of the most prominent thinkers of our time. The auhtor posits that the human quest for freedom (mostly dominated by the Western culture but by no means confined to the West) has reached its ultimate paradox of making contemporary humans fundamentally unable to act as ecosystems (thus cooperate and collaborate). They have become egosystems, completely centred on the attainment of their own individual satisfaction. The author sees this as the culmination of a rightful quest for self-affirmation, which has been a key driver of progress across human history and by no means a negative one. But the paradox is that such a human-centred notion of freedom and individual accomplishment results in a much reduced ability to operate in sync with others, at the time when mankind would need more cooperation, collaboration and selflessness to address the key challenges it faces (from climate change to inequalities). Through the examination of the broad and interdisciplinary themes typical of social philosophy and the most recent cultural studies, in direct confrontation with the thought of authors such as Lipovetsky and Bauman, Lasch and Beck, Ehrenberg and Han, this book examines shifts in cultural norms at the possible end of a millenary civilization.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Link Campus University, Rome, Italy

    Matteo Pietropaoli

About the author

Matteo Pietropaoli is Adjunct Professor of Political Sociology at Link Campus University of Rome, Italy. He obtained a PhD in Philosophy in 2013 at Sapienza University of Rome and then spent research periods at the Sorbonne Université de Paris, the Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg and the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg. Author of numerous essays in national and international scientific journals, as well as books and translations, from 2018 to 2021 he worked as political-legislative consultant for the Ministry of Education, University and Research (with prof. Lorenzo Fioramonti as Minister) and for the Chamber of Deputies.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Individualism and the Rise of Egosystems

  • Book Subtitle: The Extinction Society

  • Authors: Matteo Pietropaoli

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25281-5

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-25280-8Published: 16 March 2023

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-25281-5Published: 15 March 2023

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: V, 141

  • Topics: Political Sociology, Sociology of Culture, Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Evolutionary Biology

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