The Subject of Human Being

Description

The Subject of Human Being presents a sweeping account of the nature of human existence. As a work of philosophical anthropology, the analysis ranges from the basic powers emerging from the mind, to our extraordinary psychological capacities, to the shared sociocultural worlds we inhabit. The book integrates different perspectives on social ontology from a selection of philosophers and theorists, whose advances toward understanding the relationship between individuals and society ought to revolutionize social theory as understood and practiced in the social sciences and humanities. Although grounded in critical realist philosophy of Roy Bhaskar and the social theory of Margaret Archer, the book also draws from philosophy of mind, phenomenology of consciousness, psychoanalytic theory, virtue ethics, and personalism to support and extend its arguments. Four elements of human existence are examined: the nature of consciousness, agency, subjectivity, and the social world. Thus, it addresses related issues of power, the agent-structure problem, the formation of beliefs and desires, human universals, and human rights. Portraying a unified social theory that is materialist, realist, dialectical, and centered on emergence, and offering a comprehensive and progressive theory of human being, this book is essential reading for students and scholars of critical realism, philosophy, and the social sciences. Cover Half Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of contents Acknowledgments 1 Introduction Human being Dialectical critical realism Social ontology The problem of thinking about thinking about human being Notes Bibliography 2 Philosophical materialism Introduction Epistemological materialism Ontological materialism “It’s the real thing”: causality as the criterion for reality Ontology is deep stuff: the real, actual, and empirical A world stratified: turtles all the way down? Abstract and concrete powers: being actualized is more than a cliché Emergence: moving beyond the reductionist-dualist dilemma The theory of emergence The emergence of novelty in time and space The inextricable logic of diachronic and synchronic emergence Emergence and causality? The emergence of causality Generative mechanisms Dialectics: from being to becoming The four moments of dialectical critical realism Absence and negativity: change is a-coming Flux versus Form: transcending the antithesis The agency of absence A world of totalities Detotalization and retotalization: the politics of change Practical materialism: a world of making, saying, and doing Conclusion Notes Bibliography 3 The ontology of consciousness Introduction Searle: who is the I in the first person? The unified conscious field The self emerges Husserl: mind the time Internal time consciousness Time for the self Sartre: freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose The Sartrean structure of consciousness The self is not what it is and is what it is not Conclusion Notes Bibliography 4 The ontology of subjectivity Introduction First-person perspective, authority, and warrant Concerns projects practices The causal power of reflexive deliberation Confronting reality Subjectifying the three orders of natural reality The mechanism of deliberation The “tripartite character” of agency Critiquing reflexive deliberation Conclusion (in four parts) Notes Bibliography 5 The subject of psychoanalysis Introduction The speaking cure Formation of the subconscious The absent center of Lacan Human agency in existence Existence is real (sort.of…) Conclusion Notes Bibliography 6 The subject of structure Introduction: human agency redux The problem: agency and structures The solution: efficient and material causation Structure, culture, and social ontology The subject of relations Summary remarks on structure and culture Notes Bibliography 7 Social ontology Introduction Searlean social ontology Introduction to major themes The general structure of intentionality From conscious intentionality to collective intentionality A stumble in Searle’s social ontology? Status function Declarations Institutional reality and institutional facts The role of language in social ontology From language to institutional reality Levels of description: ground-level facts and systemic facts Conclusion Notes Bibliography 8 Conclusion Introduction Human rights: universals or unicorns? Virtue ethics Virtue ethics and/or deontology? Virtue ethics and/or human rights? Ethical universals Universals concretely considered for even the meanest understanding Human nature What is a person? The ethics of relationality Everything is broken Dialectical critical realism The final analysis Notes Bibliography Index