A thoughtful and stimulating look at this widely-used but little understood
phenomenon, personality. Drawing on a great range of philosophers, novelists
and films Peter Goldie looks at the concept of personality.Warm, sensitive, creative, outgoing, cheeky, creepy. Scan any personal ads
page and it's clear that to get a life you need a personality first. It is also
a notion with a long and often bizarre history: in early Greece and medieval
Europe, it was thought to depend on the balance of bile in the body. On
Personality is a thoughtful and stimulating look under the skin of this
widely-used but little understood phenomenon. Peter Goldie points out that we
rely on personality to do a lot of work: describe, judge, understand, explain
and predict others as well as ourselves. Is it really up to this task? If
personality is about 'character', is it a relic of a bygone Victorian age? If
personality is so reliable, how can a virtue in one person be a vice in
another? Drawing on a great range of philosophers, novelists and films, from
Aristotle, Hume, Kant and Nietzsche to Joseph Conrad, Middlemarch , War and
Peace and Bridget Jones' Diary , Peter Goldie also discusses some famous
psychology experiments.; If personality is a reliable guide to predicting what people will do, he
reflects on why people often surprise us and asks whether personality is simply
down to chance and circumstan On Personality is essential reading for anyone
interested in this fascinating but slippery concept. It will also make you
think twice before writing your CV.
