Searching for a Personal Identity Capability in Narratives of Commitment in Fiction Literature

Abstract

Sen’s work on commitment, rationality and social identity has given rise to an abundant literature. Building on Sen’s distinction of the fourth aspect of the self (a self able to scrutinize the reasons motivating her or his choices) and on Sen’s capability framework, Davis’ view of personal identity development hinges on a special capability, the personal identity capability. As people opt to develop this personal identity capability, they maintain an account of themselves in their interactions with others through evolving self-narratives.  In this paper, I find evidence of this personal identity capability in two self-narratives of commitment in fiction literature, that of Signoles, the main character of one of Maupassant’s short stories, Coward, and that of Sethe, a character of Morrison’s novel Beloved. Although both of these narratives remain a claim without consequences for the future development of both characters’ capabilities, they exhibit the function Davis assigns them: providing an account of changes in their personal identity these individuals undergo following a commitment or a choice implied by a commitment.

Keywords:

• self-narrative
• personal identity
• social identity
• commitment

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the participants of the Third International Conference Economic Philosophy (June 2016) especially those of the “Economics Identities” session and the referees for their critical comments. I also want to express my gratitude to Jimena Hurtado Prieto, Kathleen Hulley and Kesi Amanda Augustine for helpful comments at various stages of this project.

Notes

¹ Like Elster, Petit argues that behavioral economics’ hermeneutics of suspicion stems on moralists’ cynicism, among others la Rochefoucauld’s.

² “We confess our Faults to repair by our Sincerity the Damage they have done us in the Minds of others,” La Rochefoucauld, 1706, Maxims, Maxim 184.

³ “The Love of Justice in most Men, is nothing but the Fear of suffering Injustice,” La Rochefoucauld, 1706, Maxims, Maxim 78.

⁴ Maupassant is technically the narrator of this short story but his role here as a narrator is to walk the reader through the succession of actions and thoughts of Signoles until his last. Maupassant acts as a witness of Signoles’ suicide.

⁵ Coward (Un lâche) was published in Le Gaulois in January 27, Beloved by Alfred Knopf in 1987.

⁶ The original text in French is more forceful in conveying Signoles’ lack of mental activity:

“Il vivait heureux, tranquille, dans le bien-être moral le plus complet.” (Maupassant, Un lâche, p. 71).

⁷ “If we were to bother our heads with ill-mannered people we should have no time for anything else” (Transl. A M.C. McMaster and A.E. Henderson) is closer to the original text: “S’il fallait s’occuper de tous les insolents qu’on rencontre, on n’en finirait pas.” (Maupassant, Un lâche, p. 72).

⁸ Binmore’ s concept of empathetic preferences (Davis, 2011, p. 158) encapsulates Signoles’ case quite well: “In the process of cooperating with others and discovering what norms applies in specific circumstances, one comes to see oneself in terms of the conception others have of oneself, meaning that one’s self concept is not just a product of one’s own learning, but a product of one’s ‘own’ learning as influenced by others.”