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Ideas of Erving Goffman, by Text

[Canadian, 1922 - 1982, Professor of Sociology at Universities of California, Berkeley and Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.]

1959 Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
p.30 Goffman sees the self as no more than a peg on which to hang roles we play
     Full Idea: Erving Goffman has liquidated the self into its role-playing, arguing that the self is no more than 'a peg' on which the clothes of the role are hung.
     From: report of Erving Goffman (Presentation of Self in Everyday Life [1959]) by Alasdair MacIntyre - After Virtue: a Study in Moral Theory Ch.3
     A reaction: A rather unsympathetic expression of his view, but it seems to be a widely held view among students of sociology. But then sociologists are almost committed a priori to a social and relativist view of truth, persons, knowledge, religion etc.