Unbecoming Persons - by Ladelle McWhorter

About the Book

"In the face of impending ecological crises, injustices perpetrated around the world, and unsustainable consumption patterns in nations like the US, the moral demands of being a good person are almost too much to bear. No matter what we choose to do, we seem able only to lessen our complicity and guilt in some small measure rather than to enact our values positively. In Unbecoming Persons, Ladelle McWhorter confronts the frustrations and difficulties that come with trying to be a good person in this globalized, commodified, ecologically compromised world by raising an unexpected question: do we have to be persons at all? Might there be better ways of living ethically, ways of living not constrained by individualism, possessiveness, and the illusion of autonomy? Unbecoming Persons distances us from our notions of modern moral personhood-its extreme possessiveness, its preoccupation with self-identity, its often exclusive concern with individual enrichment or salvation-to discover and create ways to live well together in this world. Failure to become or be good persons does not mean we are doomed to be bad or failed persons, McWhorter assures us. There are other ways to live. Instead, McWhorter proposes an ethos of active belonging in which selves arise in networks of dynamic processes. She suggests that a good life is one that enacts an awareness of belonging to those networks. While the project to redefine personhood for a better way to live will take time, Unbecoming Persons gives us a set of vital, livable possibilities as we start down that path"--

Book Synopsis

A damning genealogy of modern personhood and a bold vision for a new ethics rooted in belonging rather than individuality.

In the face of ecological crisis, economic injustice, and political violence, the moral demands of being a good person are almost too much to bear. In Unbecoming Persons, Ladelle McWhorter argues that this strain is by design. Our ideas about personhood, she shows, emerged to sustain centuries of colonialism, slavery, and environmental destruction. We must look elsewhere to find our way out.

This history raises a hard question: Should we be persons at all, or might we live a good life without the constraints of individualism or the illusion of autonomy? In seeking an answer, McWhorter pushes back on the notion of our own personhood--our obsession with identity, self-improvement, and salvation--in search of a better way to live together in this world. Although she finds no easy answers, McWhorter ultimately proposes a new ethics that rejects both self-interest and self-sacrifice and embraces perpetual dependence, community, and the Earth

Review Quotes

"Unbecoming Persons is an urgent, beautifully argued, and movingly personal call for letting go of being persons. McWhorter presents an ethos for living in a world gone wrong because it has been made wrong. She shows us how the world can be unmade, remade, and made otherwise if we are willing to get free of personhood. This book is diagnostic, moving, and persuasive, which is to say, it is deeply philosophical."--Andrew Dilts, Loyola Marymount University

"McWhorter is without doubt the most masterful genealogist and visionary experimenter in the tradition of Foucault writing today. Unbecoming Persons is an experience book that shakes loose seemingly obvious truths about what it means to be a person and makes it difficult to go on being one. For anyone wanting to live otherwise, McWhorter shows a way."--Verena Erlenbusch-Anderson, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

"With subtlety and acumen, McWhorter has written a powerful critique of the concept of personhood. Never content with a broadside, McWhorter offers a genealogical history of the concept, showing the important role it has played in isolating us from one another. In addition, she points the way to thinking about ourselves otherwise, creating routes to solidarity. Unbecoming Persons will change the way we think about who and where we are and how we got here."--Todd May, Warren Wilson College

About the Author

Ladelle McWhorter is the Stephanie Bennett-Smith Chair of Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, Emerita at the University of Richmond. Her books include Racism and Sexual Oppression in Anglo-America: A Genealogy.