What Happens When You Write an Autobiography

Anastasia Stewart* and David Hoinski, Department of Philosophy, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26505

Field (Broad Category): Philosophy, Ethics, & Religious Studies (Oral-Human Engagement) 

Student’s Major: Philosophy Art History 

The philosophy of autobiography is a subfield of continental philosophy that has often been ignored until the 20th century. It is not that philosophers have not been writing autobiographies and that people have not been studying autobiographies or that in general philosophical autobiographies have not been produced but that the analysis of them has been largely overlooked. Philosophical autobiographies are distinguished from the standard autobiography because they advance the philosophy of their writers, and they ultimately become an example of how to live in accordance with a set philosophy. Drawing from Lenore Wrights The Philosophers "I" why people write autobiographies, what is gained from autobiographies and what constitutes an autobiography is argued through Saint Augustine's Confessions which is a letter to God that describes his conversion to Christianity and ultimately results in the tale of his life, Mill’s autobiography and Descartes’ Discourse on the Method a philosophical and autobiographical treatise most known for the quote "I am thinking; therefore I exist." When people write autobiographies the self becomes both the subject and the object that the author is creating through the literary process. Hopefully, this research will result in more people studying philosophical autobiography because, for people that are not philosophers, the process of writing an autobiography can result in the profound experience of self-discovery. 

Funding: 

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: WVU's Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) & accompanying HONR 297-level course