| Abstract |
"Don't Take It Personally examines the fundamental distinction between two contrasting visions of personhood - one featuring specific individuals characterized by their singularity and the other envisioning unspecified, effectively generic ones. Whereas the former characterizes our "personal" relationships with our friends, for instance, the latter underlies the more "impersonal" relationships between doctors and patients or store staff and customers. The distinction between those two visions of personhood is most compellingly captured by contrasting a company's decision to lay off ten percent of its employees and only later determine specifically who they would be with an a priori decision to fire those specific individuals, as well as by the U.S. Department of Justice's insistence that "No one is above the law"-- Provided by publisher. |
