Being We - Phenomenological Contributions to Social Ontology

The we is an integral part of everyday life: We solve tasks, reach decisions, and share emotions together, just as we can share a collective identity, traditions and customs. What is the nature of this we? The book discusses this question by drawing on insights from not only philosophy, but also sociology, anthropology, and social psychology.

List of contents

• Introduction


• Part I. We and I


• 1: We-experiences


• 2: An Individualist Bias


• 3: Basic Selfhood


• 4: Socially (un)constructed subjectivity


• 5: Husserlian Complexifications


• 6: Group Identification


• 7: The Question of Primacy


• Part II. We and You


• 8: Empathy


• 9: Communication and Second-person Engagement


• 10: Shared Emotions


• Part III. Varieties of We


• 11: Dyads and Triads


• 12: Communal Bonds

About the author

Dan Zahavi is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Subjectivity Research at the University of Copenhagen. Zahavi's primary research area is phenomenology and philosophy of mind, and their intersection with empirical disciplines such as psychiatry and psychology. In addition to various scholarly works on the phenomenology of Husserl, Zahavi has mainly written on the nature of selfhood, consciousness, self-consciousness, intersubjectivity, empathy, and most recently on topics in social ontology. His work has been translated into more than 30 languages.

Summary

The we is an integral part of everyday life: We solve tasks, reach decisions, and share emotions together, just as we can share a collective identity, traditions and customs. What is the nature of this we? The book discusses this question by drawing on insights from not only philosophy, but also sociology, anthropology, and social psychology.

Product details

• Authors: Dan Zahavi, Dan (Professor of Philosophy and Director Zahavi, Dan (Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Subjectivity Research Zahavi, Zahavi Dan
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.01.2025
• EAN: 9780192894489
• ISBN: 978-0-19-289448-9
• No. of pages: 240
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Philosophy > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works; PHILOSOPHY / Mind & Body, PSYCHOLOGY / Social Psychology, PHILOSOPHY / Metaphysics, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy: metaphysics & ontology, Social, group or collective psychology, Philosophy: metaphysics and ontology