This book examines in great detail the different aspects of dominant individualistic ideas about persons. It argues that an alternative conception of persons, favored by many feminist thinkers, is more complicated than is often thought but can be shown to be a reasonable and plausible conception.

Richard Schmitt is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Brown University. He now teaches at Assumption, Becker and Worcester State Colleges as an adjunct. Born in Germany, of Jewish parentage, he arrived in the United States in 1946. Best known for his introductory texts to Heidegger and to Marx and Engels, he has written widely about existentialism and political philosophy.

1 Autonomy, 2 Separateness, 3 The Critique of Separateness, 4 Being-in-Relation, 5 Examples of Being-in-Relation, 6 Love and Anger, 7 Knowledge: Separate or in-Relation?, 8 Power and Empowerment