Re: [xmca] concept as gambit

From: Martin Packer (packer@duq.edu)
Date: Fri Nov 18 2005 - 11:06:45 PST


Victor

...and I find it hard to read the paragraph I have copied below without it
seeming that you are saying the individual exists *prior* to society, and is
in danger of getting lost when entering into social relations. (A view of
the artist as unique, solitary creator, who on showing their special work to
the public loses control of its significance.) Object-relations theory has
the advantage of adding a developmental dimension in which it is clear that
the individual arises *from* society.

It is true that from certain viewpoints any society is a 'conventionalized
homogeneity,' defining and defined by anonymous roles and norms. But from
another viewpoint our most important social relations (and arguably all of
them to some degree) are personal and intimate, characterized by deeply felt
concerns rather than role prescriptions. (Cf Dreyfus' 'Being-in-the-world'
on the distinction between 'constitutive conformity' and 'conformism.')
Thought about this way it becomes clearer that we don't simply 'evaporate'
in social interaction; we also condense and find ourselves.

Martin

On 11/18/05 2:35 AM, "Victor" <victor@kfar-hanassi.org.il> wrote:

> The "evaporation" of subjectivity in social interaction does not
> necessarily involve the evaporation of the unique qualities of the
> individual within the "conventionalized homogeneity" of normative society.
> Quite the contrary is true. The individual persists, be it a single person,
> a sub-unit, or a major division of the community of participants in the
> interaction. Only his individuality is now no longer the special product of
> the subjectivity of the person, sub-unit or major division, but of a
> socially determined role or complex of roles that represents the laws and
> principles of his relation to the community as a whole system.

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