Sociality as the Human Condition

Rebekka A. Klein, Dr. theol. (2009) in Systematic Theology, University of Zurich, is Dilthey-Fellow at the Institute of Systematic Theology, University of Halle-Wittenberg. She has published on philosophy of economics, phenomenological anthropology, Christian ethics and political theology.

• Volume Foreword ... xiiiAcknowledgements ... xvIntroduction ... 11 Phenomenological Criticism of Science ... 12 The Primacy of Philosophical Anthropology ... 33 Natural Foundation of Anthropology in Current Economics ... 104 The Relational Approach to Anthropology in Social Philosophy ... 155 The Double Description of Anthropology in Theology ... 20Chapter One Anthropology as a Representation of Humanity ... 276 Interdisciplinary Anthropology ... 277 Anthropology and Sociality in the Individual Disciplines ... 297.1 Theological Figures of Thought on Nature and Humanity ... 307.1.1 The Difference between ‘Natura Lapsa’ and ‘Oeconomia Naturae’ ... 327.1.2 Isomorphism of Nature, Humanity and Society? ... 347.2 Basic Anthropological Paradigms of Experimental Economics ... 357.2.1 Human vs. Rational Behavior ... 367.2.2 Human vs. Animal Behavior ... 387.3 Philosophical Points of Entry in Anthropology ... 427.3.1 Anthropology as Human Self-Inquiry ... 427.3.2 Alternatives: The Dualism and Monism of Anthropology ... 488 Anthropological Key Differences ... 508.1 Heidegger: Humanity as the Truth of Being ... 528.2 Agamben: The Dissolution of the Animal Construct ... 568.3 Adorno: Dehumanization through Society ... 638.4 Conclusion ... 669 The Human Condition as a Concrete Condition of Existence ... 679.1 Barthes: The Human Condition as Myth ... 689.2 Arendt: Loss of the Social ‘Human Condition’? ... 7010 Plessner: Humanity and Bodily Existence ... 7710.1 The Broken Relation to the World ... 8110.2 From the Shared World (‘Mitwelt’) to Interpersonal Relations ... 8310.3 Conclusion ... 8711 Concreteness, Objectivity and Phenomenal Excess ... 89Chapter Two The Conflict between Egoism and Altruism ... 9112 Possibilities and Limitations of an Empirical Anthropology ... 9113 The Economic Modeling of Human Social Behavior ... 9413.1 The Methodological Paradigm Shifts of Experimental Economics ... 9713.2 Skepticism about the Homo Oeconomicus ... 10113.3 Backgrounds to the Critical Assessment of the Homo Oeconomicus Model ... 10414 The Methodology of Experimental Economics ... 10914.1 Translatability of Laboratory and Experiential World ... 11114.1.1 Empirical Explanation and Methodological Object Constitution in Experiments ... 11114.1.2 The Validity of Experimental Findings Outside of the Laboratory ... 11414.2 Construction Principles of Economic Laboratory Experiments ... 11714.2.1 The Experiment as a Strategic Course of Action ... 11814.2.2 The Experiment as Selective Replication of Reality ... 11914.2.3 Game Theory and Hypothesis Formation in the Behavioral Experiment ... 12315 The Modeling of Social Preferences ... 12915.1 What are Preferences? ... 12915.2 The Ultimatum Game and Inequity Aversion of Social Agents ... 13216 Norms for Cooperative Behavior ... 13616.1 Sanctions in Public Goods Games ... 13616.2 Social Norms as a Second-Order Public Good? ... 14017 From ‘Homo Reciprocans’ to ‘Homo Altruisticus’ ... 14817.1 Negative Reciprocity: Ultimatum Game ... 15017.2 Positive Reciprocity: Trust Game ... 15017.3 Pure Altruism: Dictator Game ... 15217.4 Strong Reciprocity: Altruistic Punishment and Rewarding ...15418 The Utility Expectation of Altruistic Agents ... 15718.1 Psychological, Biological, and Moral Altruism ... 15818.2 Personal Satisfaction in Altruistic Punishment ... 16119 Affective Empathy: The Significance of Social Emotions ... 16720 The Phenomenal Excess of Social Interaction ... 17121 Conclusion ... 17321.1 Critique ... 17321.2 Theses ... 17821.3 On the Sense and Nonsense of Talking about Altruism ... 184Chapter Three Difference in the Interpersonal Relation ... 18722 Three Constellations of the Interpersonal Relation ... 18723 Human Nature and its Function for the Legitimation of Political Order ... 18923.1 The Separation of Politics and Nature in the Model of Societal Order ... 19123.2 The Genesis of Order from Contingence ... 19524 Antagonism: The Irreducibility of Difference ... 19824.1 Laclau and Mouffe: Antagonism and Democracy ... 19924.2 Critical Assessment of the Liberal, Deliberative Model of Society ... 20425 Recognition: The Pacification of Difference ... 20625.1 Recognition: Normative Demand or Real-Life Practice? ... 20825.2 Post-Hegelian Perspectives on Recognition ... 21025.2.1 Honneth: Recognition and Its Negative Forms ... 21025.2.2 Taylor: Recognition and the Risk of Homogenizing Difference ... 21425.2.3 García Düttmann: A Critical Assessment of Restorative Recognition ... 21725.3 Ricoeur’s Concept of Mutual Symbolic Recognition ... 22125.3.1 The Critique of Reciprocity ... 22225.3.2 The Critique of Equal Recognition ... 22325.3.3 Symbolic Recognition ... 22425.3.4 States of Peace: Recognition and Religious Agape ... 22526 Alterity: Difference as the Source of Responsibility ... 22726.1 Levinas’ Ethical Reconception of Humanity ... 22926.2 The Impossibility of Social Inhumanity ... 23226.3 The Relationship to the Other as the Third and the Standards of Justice ... 23526.4 Beyond the Symmetry of Egalitarian Relationships ... 23726.5 God’s Invisibility ... 23827 Conclusion ... 241Chapter Four Humanity and Inhumanity in the Love of Neighbor ... 24528 Theological Reservations against an Immanence of the Social ... 24529 Biblical Usage and Hermeneutical Function of the Word ‘Neighbor’ ... 25229.1 The Biblical Contexts of Caring for the Other Human Being ... 25429.2 Who is my Neighbor – the Wrong Question? ... 25629.3 Terminological Delineations ... 25829.4 Hermeneutical Analysis of the Word ‘Neighbor’ ... 25929.5 Proximity and Distance in the Love of Neighbor ... 26030 Social Criticism Instead of Morality ... 26331 Meisinger: Anthropological Awareness of Difference ... 26732 Kierkegaard: Humanity as the Phenomenal Excess of God’s Love ... 27132.1 Kierkegaard’s Method of Analysis ... 27132.2 The Negative Definition of the Neighbor ... 27332.3 Self-Love and the Deficiencies of Interpersonal Love ... 27933 Beyond Kierkegaard: The Love of Neighbor and Inhumanity ... 28333.1 Adorno: The Dead Neighbor ... 28433.2 Žižek, Santner, Reinhard: The Neighbor as a Figure of Inhumanity ... 28734 Humanity and Inhumanity as Reflected by Mercy ... 29134.1 Lack of Consequences and Resources ... 29134.2 Lack of Expectations ... 29334.3 Unpredictability: The Phenomenal Abundance of Practicing Mercy ... 29534.4 Inhuman Mercilessness ... 29735 Conclusion ... 299Final Thoughts ... 30336 Multiperspectivity Instead of Transdisciplinarity ... 30337 Result of this Study ... 305Bibliography ... 309Index of Names ... 321Index of Subjects ... 323