A Study in Xenological Phenomenology

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 27-50
Author(s):  
Thomas S. Eberle ◽  

This keynote takes a fresh look at Schutz’s essay on “The Stranger” of 1944. After a brief reflection on the probably universal topos of the stranger, it discerns three different kinds of strangeness in that essay: 1. the otherness of the other and the inaccessibility of the other’s experiences; 2. the strangeness vs. familiarity of elements of knowledge; and 3. the social acceptance by the in-group. Then some methodological implications of Schutz’s approach are pondered, his somewhat hidden offer of an alternative sociology and the postulate of adequacy. Subsequently, two critical issues are discussed: Schutz’s handling of values and value-relations and his complete omission of affects and emotions in spite of all the hardship the (Jewish) immigrants at that time suffered from. An outlook on future Schutzian research concludes the paper.

1999 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 337-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Dobson

Abstract:Here I synthesize certain ideas presented in two different articles that appeared in the same issue of Business Ethics Quarterly. One article (Hasnas) invokes the stockholder model as a valid normative theory of business ethics, the other article (Dunfee) invokes a marketplace of morality. Both articles imply that the accepted financial-economic view of the firm is a view that can accommodate ethics. I offer empirical support for this view. I also identify the ethic of the stockholder model as a variant on might-makes-right and consider the social acceptance of this ethic as a postmodern phenomenon.


2021 ◽  
pp. 003776862110184
Author(s):  
Thomas sealy

British converts to Islam can be hard to locate in relation to the majority and born Muslim minority in society and can experience rejection from both sides. Based on an ethnic lens and framework, they are conceptualised as ‘in-between’ the two, neither fully one nor the other. This article argues that by foregrounding religious rather than ethnic identity, a different pattern of how converts position themselves in society emerges. To do so, it draws on a study of converts’ narratives and investigates the dynamics of how a divide between religion and culture emerges from these narratives. To discuss these dynamics, it draws on Simmel’s influential essay The Stranger in order to develop an analytical reorientation that centralises the religious aspect in order to gain a new relational understanding of converts’ belonging as well as the social aspects of the conversion process itself.


2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 35-53
Author(s):  
Andreas Volquartz Overgaard

Denne artikel har til formål at diskutere den sociologiske figur ”den fremmede i storbyen” igennem en teoretisk bearbejdelse af Georg Simmels Storbyerne og det åndelige liv og af hans Ekskurs om den fremmede samt af Gernot Böhmes atmosfærebegreb. Konklusionerne underbygges af en kvalitativ analyse af storbyboere, der sidder alene på to udvalgte caféer i København. Artiklen argumenterer indledningsvis for, at ”den fremmede” indtager en afgørende rolle i markante storbysociologiske positioners måde at fortolke storbyens sociale liv på – og at forståelsen af dette liv tager udgangspunkt i den fremmedes ambivalente karakter og derved implicerer, at denne er en potentiel kilde til uorden. Dette syn sætter jeg spørgsmålstegn ved og argumenterer for, at oplevelsen af den fremmede ikke kun kan kendetegnes ved ambivalens og uorden, men også ved en mere umiddelbar oplevelse af vedkommende – trygheden i at fornemme og sanse den andens nærvær i en bestemt rumlig atmosfære. Endeligt argumenterer jeg for, at Simmels egen teori danner fundamentet for en sådan sanselig opløsning af ambivalens hos den fremmede i storbyen. ENGELSK ABSTRACT: Andreas Volquartz Overgaard: Groups of Strangers: Sitting Alone in a Café in Copenhagen This article discusses the sociological concept of ”the stranger in the metropolis” by way of a theoretical discussion of Georg Simmel’s The Metropolis and Mental life and The stranger. Gernot Böhme’s concept of atmosphere is employed to broaden Simmel’s conceptual framework. The empirical basis is a qualitative analysis of city dwellers who sit alone in two cafés in Copenhagen. In the introduction, the article argues that ”the stranger” plays a crucial role in the way important urban sociological theoretical positions understand the social life of the metropolis – and that these positions base their arguments on the ambivalent character of ”the stranger”, thereby implying him to be a potential source for disorder. I question these perspectives and argue that the experience of the stranger can not only be described through ambivalence and disorder, but also through an immediate experience of the stranger – the safety in feeling and sensing the presence of the other in a specific spatial atmosphere. Finally, I argue that Simmel’s own theory creates the basis for such a sensory dissolving of the stranger’s ambivalence in the metropolis. Keywords: Simmel, the stranger, the metropolis, atmosphere, the café.


2013 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pietro Refolo

Le odierne applicazioni della medicina hanno introdotto tali e tante trasformazioni nell’atto procreativo umano, da rendere plausibile l’idea che sia in corso una sorta di “rivoluzione riproduttiva”. Tra le problematiche risultanti delle trasformazioni in atto vi è, per un verso, un effetto involutivo sulla generazione umana, nel senso che esse hanno ridotto o rischiano di ridurre l’“evento” rappresentato dalla nascita a mero “fatto biologico”, di “avvicinare” pericolosamente i meccanismi che la regalano a quelli della riproduzione animale e di rendere “superflua”, nel processo generativo, l’integrazione affettivo-morale tra due persone, che poi è quel che qualifica più specificatamente il riprodursi umano. Per altro verso, vi sono una serie di mutamenti nella scena sociale concernenti l’atteggiamento che l’adulto ha nei confronti dei nuovi nati e lo “statuto simbolico” del figlio, la cui immagine è sempre meno associabile a nozioni quali “ospite”, “dono” “frutto”, “benedizione” e sempre associabile a quella di “desiderio” da soddisfare a tutti costi. Il contributo tenta un approfondimento di queste criticità. ---------- Medicine applications have changed human procreation to the point that the idea of a sort of “reproductive revolution” is plausible. Among the issues resulting from these changes, we have to consider, on the one hand, the regressive effect on human generation, in the sense that they have reduced or may reduce birth “event” into mere “biological fact”, to “approximate” dangerously its mechanisms to animal reproduction and to make “unnecessary” emotional integration among people, that is what qualifies more specifically human reproduction, within human generative processes. On the other hand, several changes in the social scene regarding adult’s attitude towards new born and the “symbolic status” of the child, whose image is less and less associated to notions such as “guest” “gift”, “fruit”, “blessing” and more and more associated to “desire” to win at all costs. The contribution intends to debate these critical issues.


1962 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 334-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lloyd A. Fallers

Throughout the history of economics the stranger everywhere appears as the trader, or the trader as stranger. As long as the economy is essentially selfsufficient, or products are exchanged within a spatially narrow group, it needs no middleman: a trader is required only for products that originate outside the group. Insofar as members do not leave the circle to buy these necessities — in which case they are the “strange” merchants in that outside territory — the trader must be a stranger … This position of the stranger stands out more sharply if he settles down in the place of his activity, instead of leaving it again: in innumerable cases even this is possible only if he can live by intermediate trade… This position of the stranger stands out more sharply if he settles down in the place of his activity, instead of leaving it again: in innumerable cases even this is possible only if he can live by intermediate trade… The stranger is by nature no “owner of the soil“ — soil not only in the physical but also in the figurative sense of a life-substance which is fixed, if not in a point in space, at least at an ideal point of the social environment. Although in more intimate relations he may develop all kinds of charm and significance, as long as he is considered a stranger in the eyes of the other, he is not an “owner of soil”… Another expression of this constellation lies in the objectivity of the stranger. He is not radically committed to the unique ingredients and peculiar tendencies of the group, and therefore approaches them with the specific attitude of “objectivity”. But objectivity does not imply passivity and detachment; it is a particular structure composed of distance and nearness, indifference and involvement … The freedom, however, which allows the stranger to experience and treat even his close relationships as though from a birds-eye view, contains many dangerous possibilities. In uprisings of all sorts, the party attacked has claimed, from the beginning of things, that provocation has come from the outside, from emissaries and instigators.


2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
David McNally

Insisting on the status of money as a creature of both the market and the state, this article challenges dualistic understandings of capitalist imperialism as entailing two fundamentally distinct logics, one capitalist, the other territorial. In opposition to the dual-logics position, the article argues for the distinctiveness of capitalist money in terms of a complex butunitarysocio-economic logic. The social dynamism of this logic involves the spatial-territorial extension of the domain of modern value relations, embodied in fully-capitalist money. Departing from the development of coinage in ancient Greece, the article proceeds to identify the 1690s in Britain as the decisive moment in the emergence of a new and distinctively capitalist form of (world) money, institutionally based upon the Bank of England, in which state debt was thoroughly integrated with private financial markets. The crucial role of the Bank of England in this new monetary system is shown to have pivoted on its capacities to finance Britain’s inter-colonial wars. Colonialism, war, slavery and dispossession underline the omnipresence of ‘blood and dirt’ (Marx) in the development and reproduction of capitalist impersonal power as expressed in world money. Undoing the impersonal power characteristic of bourgeois money thus entails undoing the economic dispossession of the labouring poor, which forms the basis of their ‘possession’ by capital.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 28
Author(s):  
Norbert Bátfai

A cikk célja a mesterséges intelligencia kutatásokat az emberi önmegismerés szolgálatába állítani. Ehhez egyrészt filozófiai hátteret biztosítani, másrészt a mesterséges intelligencia társadalmi elfogadottságát megalapozni. Tézisünk, hogy az emberi kultúra fenntartásához és fejlesztéséhez a játékokon és a mesterséges intelligencián keresztül vezet az út. E tézis alátámasztásnak támogatására kísérletet teszünk a szubjektivitás elméletének megalapozására. --- Games and artificial intelligence as the future of culture: an attempt to develop a theory of subjectivity The goal of this paper is to use artificial intelligence research to acquire more extensive knowledge of ourselves. On the one hand, we provide a philosophical background to facilitate this, and on the other hand, we try to improve the social acceptance of artificial intelligence. We argue that the way to maintain and further develop human culture is through gaming and artificial intelligence. In support of this thesis we make an attempt to create a theory of subjectivity. Keywords: artificial intelligence, complexity, entropy, meme, computer games, esport


2019 ◽  
Vol 78 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 69-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikaël De Clercq ◽  
Charlotte Michel ◽  
Sophie Remy ◽  
Benoît Galand

Abstract. Grounded in social-psychological literature, this experimental study assessed the effects of two so-called “wise” interventions implemented in a student study program. The interventions took place during the very first week at university, a presumed pivotal phase of transition. A group of 375 freshmen in psychology were randomly assigned to three conditions: control, social belonging, and self-affirmation. Following the intervention, students in the social-belonging condition expressed less social apprehension, a higher social integration, and a stronger intention to persist one month later than the other participants. They also relied more on peers as a source of support when confronted with a study task. Students in the self-affirmation condition felt more self-affirmed at the end of the intervention but didn’t benefit from other lasting effects. The results suggest that some well-timed and well-targeted “wise” interventions could provide lasting positive consequences for student adjustment. The respective merits of social-belonging and self-affirmation interventions are also discussed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-61
Author(s):  
Pelin Sönmez ◽  
Abulfaz Süleymanov

Türkiye, Cumhuriyet tarihinin en yoğun zorunlu göç dalgasını 2011 yılından bu yana süren Suriye Savaşı ile yaşamaktadır. Suriye vatandaşlarının geçici koruma statüsü altında Türkiye toplumuna her açıdan entegrasyonları günümüzün ve geleceğin politika öncelikleri arasında düşünülmelidir. Öte yandan ülkeye kabul edilen sığınmacıların kendi kültürel kimliğini kaybetmeden içinde yaşadığı ev sahibi topluma uyumu, ortak yaşam kültürünün gelişmesi açısından önem arz etmektedir. Bu makalede, "misafir" olarak kabul edilen Suriyeli vatandaşların Türk toplumunca kabul edilmeleri ve dışlanma risklerinin azaltılmasına yönelik devlet politikaları ortaya konularak, üye ve aday ülkelere göçmenlerin dışlanmasını önlemek için Avrupa Birliği (AB) tarafından sunulan hukuki yapı ve kamu hizmeti inisiyatifleri incelenmekte, birlikte yaşam kültürü çerçevesinde Suriyeli vatandaşlara yönelik  toplumsal kabul düzeyleri ele alınmaktadır. Çalışma iki ana bölümden oluşmaktadır: göçmen ve sığınmacılara karşı toplumsal dışlanmayı engellemek için benimsenen yasa ve uygulamaların etkisi ve İstanbul-Sultanbeyli bölgesinde Suriyeli sığınmacılarla ilgili toplumsal algı çalışmasının sonuçları. Bölgede ikamet eden Suriyelilere yönelik toplumsal kabul düzeyinin yüksek olduğu görülürken, halkın Suriyelileri kendilerine  kültürel ve dini olarak yakın hissetmesi toplumsal kabul düzeyini olumlu etkilemektedir. ABSTRACT IN ENGLISHAn evaluation of the European Union and Turkish policies regarding the culture of living togetherThis article aims to determine the level of social acceptance towards Syrians within the context of cohabitation culture by evaluating EU’s legal structure and public service initiatives in order to prevent Syrian refugees from being excluded in member and candidate countries and by revealing government policies on acceptance of Syrians as “guest” by Turkish society and minimizing the exclusion risks of them. This article consists of two main parts, one of which is based on the effects of law and practices preventing refugees and asylum seekers from social exclusion, and the other is on the results of social perception on Syrians in Sultanbeyli district of Istanbul. At the end of 5-years taking in Syrian War, it is obvious that most of more than 3 million Syrian with unregistered ones in Turkey are “here to stay”. From this point of view, the primary scope of policies should be specified in order to remove side effects of refugee phenomenon seen as weighty matter by bottoming out the exclusion towards those people. To avoid possible large-scale conflicts or civil wars in the future, the struggle with exclusion phenomenon plays a crucial role regarding Turkey’s sociological situation and developing policies. In the meaning of forming a model for Turkey, a subtitle in this article is about public services for European-wide legal acquis and practices carried out since 1970s in order to prevent any exclusion from the society. On the other hand, other subtitles are about legal infrastructure and practices like Common European Asylum and Immigration Policies presented in 2005, and Law on Foreigners and International Protection introduced in 2013. In the last part of the article, the results of a field survey carried out in a district of Istanbul were used to analyze the exclusion towards refugees in Turkey. A face-to-face survey was randomly conducted with 200 settled refugees in Sultanbeyli district of Istanbul, and their perceptions towards Syrian people under temporary protection were evaluated. According to the results, the level of acceptance for Syrians living in this district seems relatively high. The fact that Turkish people living in the same district feel close to Syrian refugees culturally and religiously affect their perception in a positive way: however, it is strikingly seen and understood that local residents cop an attitude on the refugees’ becoming Turkish citizens.


2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Besin Gaspar

This research deals with the development of  self concept of Hiroko as the main character in Namaku Hiroko by Nh. Dini and tries to identify how Hiroko is portrayed in the story, how she interacts with other characters and whether she is portrayed as a character dominated by ”I” element or  ”Me”  element seen  from sociological and cultural point of view. As a qualitative research in nature, the source of data in this research is the novel Namaku Hiroko (1967) and the data ara analyzed and presented deductively. The result of this analysis shows that in the novel, Hiroko as a fictional character is  portrayed as a girl whose personality  develops and changes drastically from ”Me”  to ”I”. When she was still in the village  l iving with her parents, she was portrayed as a obedient girl who was loyal to the parents, polite and acted in accordance with the social customs. In short, her personality was dominated by ”Me”  self concept. On the other hand, when she moved to the city (Kyoto), she was portrayed as a wild girl  no longer controlled by the social customs. She was  firm and determined totake decisions of  her won  for her future without considering what other people would say about her. She did not want to be treated as object. To put it in another way, her personality is more dominated by the ”I” self concept.


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