Review of John J. Davenport, 'Narrative Identity, Autonomy, and Mortality: From Frankfurt and MacIntyre to Kierkegaard', Routledge, 2012, 230pp., $125.00 (hbk), ISBN 9780415894135.

Abstract

This book gives a systematic defense of narrative practical identity. It also constructs a positive concept of narrative practical identity, which it dubs "narravive." The defense is against objections to narrative identity found in the work of Bernard Williams, Galen Strawson, John Lippitt, and Patrick Stokes. The positive concept is built on earlier work by John Davenport and Anthony Rudd, arising from their anthology 'Kierkegaard after MacIntyre: Essays on Freedom, Narrative, and Virtue' (Carus Publishing, 2001). In the present book Davenport builds on work by David Carr, Paul Ricoeur, Charles Taylor, Christine Korsgaard, Kim Atkins, Anthony Rudd, and others to offer a sophisticated, multi-layered model of narrative identity, which addresses all the specific criticisms of earlier models, though he is at pains to point out that this is a model for practical identity only and is not adequate on its own for establishing numerical identity of persons over time.