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Podcast: Past Present Future
Episode: The History of Bad Ideas: Identity
Description: For the final episode in our current series on the history of bad ideas, David talks to philosopher Alexander Douglas about the damage that can be done by the idea of identity. Why is the search for a distinctive personal identity such a futile quest? How does it lead to an identity politics of exclusion and violence? What can we learn from the philosopher Spinoza about having an identity without identity? And what can we glean from the experience of dementia about losing ourselves?
'Against Identity: The Wisdom of Escaping the Self' by Alexander Douglas is out...