scholarly journals Intergroup Dialogues in the Landscape of Digital Societies: How Does the Dialogical Self Affect Intercultural Relations in Online Contexts?

Societies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 84
Author(s):  
Chiara Imperato ◽  
Tiziana Mancini

The effects of intergroup dialogues on intercultural relations in digital societies and the growing conflict, inflammatory and hate speech phenomena characterizing these environments are receiving increasing attention in socio-psychological studies. Based on Allport’s contact theory, scholars have shown that online intercultural contact reduces ethnic prejudice and discrimination, although it is not yet clear when and how this occurs. By analyzing the role of the Dialogical Self in online intercultural dialogues, we aim to understand how individuals position themselves and others at three levels of inclusiveness—personal, social, and human—and how this process is associated with attitudes towards the interlocutor, intergroup bias and prejudice, whilst also considering the inclusion of the Other in the Self and ethnic/racial identity. An experimental procedure was administered via the Qualtrics platform, and data were collected among 118 undergraduate Italian students through an anonymous questionnaire. From ANOVA and moderation analysis, it emerged that the social level of inclusiveness was positively associated with ethnic/racial identity and intergroup bias. Furthermore, the human level of inclusiveness was associated with the inclusion of the Other in the Self and ethnic/racial identity, and unexpectedly, also with intergroup bias. We conclude that when people interact online as “human beings”, the positive effect of online dialogue fails, hindering the differentiation processes necessary to define one’s own and the interlocutor’s identities. We discuss the effects of intercultural dialogue in the landscape of digital societies and the relevance of our findings for theory, research and practice.

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 194
Author(s):  
Mary Frohlich

In the period now being called the Anthropocene, the fatal vulnerabilities of the modern way of constructing selfhood are becoming ever more evident. Joanna Macy, who writes from a Buddhist perspective, has argued for the need to “green” the self by rediscovering its participation in ecological and cosmic networks. From a Christian perspective, I would articulate this in terms of an imperative to rediscover our spiritual personhood as radical communion in both God and cosmos. In this paper, “self” refers to an ever-restless process of construction of identity based in self-awareness and aimed at maintaining one’s integrity, coherence, and social esteem. I use the term “person,” on the other hand, to refer to a relational center that exists to be in communion with other persons. How—within the conditions of the dawning Anthropocene—can the tension between these two essential aspects of human existence be opened up in a way that can more effectively protect human and other life on Earth? This would require, it seems, harnessing both the self-protective and the self-giving potentials of human beings. The proposed path is to give ourselves over into the rhythms of the Spirit, being breathed in to selfless personal communion and out to co-creation of our refreshed selfhood.


MELINTAS ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Mardohar B. B. Simanjuntak

Religion has probably been very influencial since the dawn of civilization. The next imperative question would be how something that has always been in the very discourse of human achievement stays in the centre stage for generations to come. To tackle this question, it is important to see what religion actually is related to its ability to manifest the self. The question can even be extended further by examining how the self – central to epistemological inquiries – be justified by the presence of consciousness. Constructing answers to this colossal undertaking of religious identity invites a thorough understanding of how human beings can be taken as conscious. The subsequent agenda is to determine whether consciousness lies within or – on the other way around – outside; whether it is naturally personal or else impersonal. Having dealt with these risky arguments allows us to slightly probe something in the future concerning the debatable fate of being a religious self. Both Mark C. Taylor’ rejuvenated schemata and Yuval Noah Harari’ reinvented algorhytms have provided an extra breathing space that facilitates broader chances for religion to further play a farther role in an even broader horizon of foreseeable possibilities.


Author(s):  
John L. Culliney ◽  
David Jones

We describe the foundations of the fractal self in relation to the Chinese notion of personal development and enhancement of adeptness in the world and mutualism with the other. This seeking, described in the codified system of Daoism, is a pathway that may progress to the highest level of achievement of such a self: that which defines a sage. The chapter introduces the view that a sage is a fractal self that achieves a peak of intimacy and constructive interaction with the world. We detail the development of human beings on this pathway, emerging beyond the core embodiments of empathy, sympathy, and rudimentary morality observed in apes. The self for the early Chinese was always a being that was embedded in the world and dynamic flow of forces. This self was defined in intimate terms as adaptable and adept, seeking to be a microcosmic contributor to some holistic macrocosm. In this chapter, Daoism leads our thinking on how the fractal self engages with the world. In turn, this way of understanding selfness and its potential to enrich its system from within resonates with discussions of the interactive self of Buddhism and was also in the minds of Pre-Socratic thinkers in the West.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-34
Author(s):  
Tika Data Subedi

The purpose of this work is to study Edward Albee and K. S. Yatri’s approach regarding the status of respective societies of America and Nepal with absurd drama following their agenda. K. S. Yatri and Edward Albee seemed to be influenced by the absurdist mode of drama which concerns much about the modern existence of social human beings. Albee follows absurdist traces in the dramatization of uncertainty, alienation and the question of freedom in The American Dream. His characters do not have fixed identities, and they suffer from their individual problems. The notion of the characters and their activities too are uncertain. In the same way, the ambiguity of existence, whether the characters really are or not, is a problem for the characters in Atirikta Yatra. The characters are based on illusions, and the line between the reality and fantasy is missing. Alienation of the human being from the self and the other is existential theme that K. S. Yatri deals with in Atirikta Yatra. Alienation in the play is caused by the lack of communication, and as a result, the isolated self is entrapped in Yatri’s characters due to their own condition. Freedom becomes a confusing question in his works as it makes the characters anxious while choosing one option among various others on their own, and it renders the characters responsible for their free choices. Though, two texts belong to divergent space however both show how absurdism has affected individuals and society everywhere at present.


2021 ◽  
pp. 000842982110448
Author(s):  
Balázs M Mezei

In this article I overview Paul Ricœur’s understanding of divine revelation on the basis of some of his relevant writings. I argue that Ricœur’s hermeneutics of revelation has two aspects: on the one hand Ricœur’s explains the complex ways of acquiring and interpreting divine revelation especially with respect to the Bible; on the other hand, he acknowledges that revelation, originating in God’s freedom, is immediately given. In Ricœur’s view, the understanding of this immediacy is tainted by the presence of evil in human understanding which hinders the realization of revelation itself. As a critique of this standpoint I argue that the immediate givenness of revelation is logically and phenomenologically presupposed in our interpretations. Any hermeneutics of revelation entails a phenomenology of revelation. This phenomenology contains both the self-founding of human beings and, at the same time, the recognition of the absoluteness of the divine. Husserl’s phenomenology offers a way to the understanding of the immediacy of revelation through his central term of Eigenheitlichkeit. Ricœur understands this term not as genuine reality but rather as appartenance, ‘belonging to’, and reshapes its meaning in line with a hermeneutical naturalism. This explains his difficulty to conceive properly the sovereignty of revelation and the importance of phenomenology in the understanding of its immediate character.


Author(s):  
Taras Lyuty

The article is an attempt at a philosophical interpretation of the literary text. Its task is to identify the principles of the human self, which are presented in classical literature, in Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey” and Dante’s “Divine Comedy”. The study provides an analysis of the archetypal narrative structure to which the model of human development with three components (individual, person, personality) is applied. The correspondence of the heroes to this typology, which is not the final measure of the human, but resembles the “ideal types” according to Max Weber, has been traced in the research. The dynamics of the development of the inner world of a human being, which corresponds to the plot of the journey, is analyzed. That is not a journey only in physical space, but an inner path too that a person overcomes in a gradual process of self-awareness. It has been found that the works of Homer and Dante can be interpreted as not implying a developed and independent personality. On the other hand, the characters demonstrate the key factors of change that occur within the one who forms the traits of self-sufficiency. The study succeeds in constructing a psychological map that allows outlining not a stable type, but rather different personality horizons. There are certain human aspirations of the man to be the creator of the self. However, such motivations involve not only a number of arbitrary manifestations of human beings but also the establishment of a measure for themselves. Initially, these intentions are carried out without self-absorption, reflection, and self-assessment. After all, unrestrained and unbalanced human temperament for a long time remains subject to higher (divine) forces and is significantly limited by this supreme power. Nevertheless, a human eventually comes to the need for self-knowledge and establishes a balance between rational and unconscious manifestations. People succeed in getting out of the circle of self-forgetfulness by overcoming various forms of alienation, loneliness, narcissism, self-contradiction, negligence, arrogance. Self-control is achieved by truth about oneself, overcoming fear, recognizing the effects of temptation and passion. The human attitude to the Other becomes possible due to freedom and love as cardinal manifestations of the active component of the self


2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
João Marcelo Crubellate

Sommario: Il mio obiettivo in questo testo è discutere la nozione di lavoro produttivo nell’ambito della opera di Kierkegaard, con speciale atenzione alla teoria degli stadi esistenziali. Partendo dal concetto di uomo come un essere relazionale cioè che si rapporta a sé stesso ed alle altre persone, cerco di esaminare come il teologo danese descrive il lavoro in ogni stadio (l’estetico, l’etico e poi il religioso). Mentre si può dire che nell’etico il lavoro (come approfondimento dell’interiorità e come lavoro produttivo) sia il dovere di ogni uomo, dovere che lo porta all’universale, e nell’estetico che il lavoro sia una noiosa attività almeno quando non si riesce ad svilupparsi qualche talento speciale, nel religioso tutto cambia. Nello stadio religioso l’altro è il prossimo cioè un somigliante e quindi l’esistenza umana prende come scopo un attuarsi del sé verso ad una possibilità che si trova oltre sé stesso, una possibilità che Kierkegaard designa come coscienza eterna. Dunque il lavoro diventa sfera anche per la manifestazione dello umano come coscienza e libertà e non soltanto uno sforzo per soddisfare le necessità materiale dell’uomo come individuo di una spezie animale.Abstract: My purpose here was to discuss the notion of productive work in the philosophy of Kierkegaard. I put special attention upon the so-called theory of the life’stages. Firstly I take the concept of man as a relational being, that is a being that related himself to himself and to the other people. Then I examine Kierkegaardian discussion of the concept of work in each stage: the esthetic, the ethical and the religious. It is possible to affirm that while in the ethical the work (both as the inner working of the personality and as productive work) is an universal duty, and for the esthetic it is a boring activity or at the best, is one occasion for exercising a special talent, in the religious everything changes. In the religious the Other person with whom the Self relates himself must be taken as the biblical-neighbour and so the human life takes a diferente purpose: become conscious of his own eternal calling. In the same sense working becomes a way of developing the most important atributes of human beings – his self-conscience and his liberty – more than a way of caring about the material necessities of life as an individual of an animal specie. Key words: Life’stages; Work; Subjectivity  


2021 ◽  
pp. 095935432110369
Author(s):  
Joachim Meier

Rooted in the fact–value dichotomy of the modern scientific outlook, psychology tends to render “ought” as distinguishable from and additional to “is.” The purpose of this article, however, is to disclose an “oughtness” at the center of human existence by which human beings inevitably live and suffer. In the first part, psychology’s neglect of oughtness is tracked down through significant albeit different theoretical strands. Second, through a threefold argument entailing (a) the other, (b) language, and (c) the self, it is revealed how people’s concrete lived lives as well as the very formation of a subject are incomprehensible without the oughtness of existence. Finally, the relation between suffering and oughtness is spelled out. Due to the oughtness of existence, guilt and inadequacy enter into the human life.


2020 ◽  
pp. 106-123
Author(s):  
K. E. Løgstrup

This chapter considers the relation between the ethical demand and natural love, understood as love which has a biological, psychological, or sociological basis. It is argued that while natural love may appear more reciprocal than the ethical demand, in fact this contrast is superficial, and is partly based on the misapprehension that the ethical demand is destructive for the person acting on it. Instead, it is argued, the ethical demand arises when natural love fails. Moreover, it is argued, if we are capable of responding to the other person with love, this is not due to our own efforts, as the self is inherently selfish and thus wicked; love is therefore the result of the goodness of life, rather than the goodness of human beings. This also makes the ethical demand unfulfillable, as if the demand arises, love has already failed, to be replaced by a sense of obligation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 439-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Amodio ◽  
Mina Cikara

The social neuroscience approach to prejudice investigates the psychology of intergroup bias by integrating models and methods of neuroscience with the social psychology of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination. Here, we review major contemporary lines of inquiry, including current accounts of group-based categorization; formation and updating of prejudice and stereotypes; effects of prejudice on perception, emotion, and decision making; and the self-regulation of prejudice. In each section, we discuss key social neuroscience findings, consider interpretational challenges and connections with the behavioral literature, and highlight how they advance psychological theories of prejudice. We conclude by discussing the next-generation questions that will continue to guide the social neuroscience approach toward addressing major societal issues of prejudice and discrimination.


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