The self describes itself

Author's name: Judith Butler Publisher: Dar Al-Tanweer for Publishing and Distribution Year of publication: 2022 Literary classification: Philosophy and Thought Brief about the book: Judith Butler, a professor of rhetoric and comparative studies at the University of California / Berkeley, presented chapters of this book for the first time in the spring of 2002 as part of the Spinoza lecture series in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam. It is her first complete book translated into Arabic. Its translation aims to introduce this esteemed philosopher to Arabic readers for its importance and its ability to enrich our various dialogues with deep, innovative insights, but the main goal is to present the subject and questions of the book for their vital importance; and I mean our need to reflect on our personal experiences not as a personal event but as an intertwined incident of influence and impact, shaping and being shaped by the intense ethical and historical experience that we all bear witness to. And this book's contribution to our concerns will not be simplified or limited to superficial aspects; rather, it is an in-depth philosophical inquiry rich with references (to Nietzsche, Hegel, Foucault, Adorno, Levinas) and attempts to capture difficult junctures in the relationship between the self and its normative and historical environment. Many questions are raised in the context of the book about the nature of self-formation, and the relationship of this formation to ethics from the perspective of moral philosophy and the concept of responsibility, along with a continuous preoccupation with exploring the ambiguous relationship between the narrative with which the self describes itself (in the stance of ruler and ruled, autobiography, psychoanalysis) and the self's story enveloped in an inevitable darkness that challenges description and narration.