[Introduction to] Unbecoming Persons

Authors

• Ladelle McWhorter, University of RichmondFollow

Files

Description

A damning genealogy of modern personhood and a bold vision for a new ethics rooted in belonging rather than individuality.
 
In the face of ecological crisis, economic injustice, and political violence, the moral demands of being a good person are almost too much to bear. In Unbecoming Persons, Ladelle McWhorter argues that this strain is by design. Our ideas about personhood, she shows, emerged to sustain centuries of colonialism, slavery, and environmental destruction. We must look elsewhere to find our way out.

This history raises a hard question: Should we be persons at all, or might we live a good life without the constraints of individualism or the illusion of autonomy? In seeking an answer, McWhorter pushes back on the notion of our own personhood—our obsession with identity, self-improvement, and salvation—in search of a better way to live together in this world. Although she finds no easy answers, McWhorter ultimately proposes a new ethics that rejects both self-interest and self-sacrifice and embraces perpetual dependence, community, and the Earth

ISBN

9780226843582

Publication Date

2025

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

City

Chicago

Keywords

Ethics, General Philosophy, Philosophy of Society, Political Philosophy

Department

Philosophy

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Recommended Citation

McWhorter, Ladelle. Unbecoming Persons : The Rise and Demise of the Modern Moral Self / Ladelle McWhorter. First edition., University of Chicago Press, 2025.