The Moral Sense in the Communal Significance of Life: Investigations in Phenomenological Praxeology: Psychiatric Therapeutics, Medical Ethics und Social Praxis Within the Life- and Communal World

419 Pages·1986·8.585 MB·English

by  Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (auth.)

THE MORAL SENSE
IN THE COMMUNAL SIGNIFICANCE OF LIFE
ANALECTA HUSSERLIANA
THE YEARBOOK OF PHENOMENOLOGICAL RESEARCH
VOLUMEXX
Editor-in-Chief
ANNA-TERESA TYMIENIECKA
The World Institute for Advanced Phenomenological Research and Learning
Belmont, Massachusetts
SEQUEL TO VOLUME XV
Foundations of Morality, Human Rights,
and the Human Sciences
THE MORAL SENSE
IN THE COMMUNAL
SIGNIFICANCE OF LIFE
Investigations in Phenomenological Praxeology:
Psychiatric Therapeutics, Medical Ethics and Social
Praxis Within the Life- and Communal World
Edited by
ANNA-TERESA TYMIENIECKA
The World Phenomenology Institute
Published under the auspices of
The World Institute for Advanced Phenomenological Research and Learning
A-T. Tymieniecka, President
D. REIDEL PUBLISHING COMPANY
A MEMBER OF THE KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS GROUP
DORDRECHTj BOSTONj LANCASTERjTOKYO
Library of Congress Cataloging·in·Publication Data
Main entry under title:
The Moral sense in the communal significance of life.
(Analecta Husserliana ; v. 20)
"Published under the auspices of the World Institute for Advanced
Phenomenological Research and Learning."
Contains research work presented at the Third Phenomenology and
Psychiatry Conference held by the International Society for Phenomenology
and the Human Sciences Apr. 25-26, 1984, in Cambridge, Mass.
Includes bibliographies and index.
1. Phenomenology-Congresses. 2. Ethics-Congresses.
3. Social ethics-Congresses. 4. Psychiatry-Congresses. 5. Medical
ethics-Congresses. I. Tymieniecka, Anna-Teresa. II. World Institute
for Advanced Phenomenological Research and Learning. III. Inter
national Society for Phenomenology and the Human Sciences. IV. Phenom
enology and Psychiatry Conference (3rd : 1984 : Cambridge, Mass.)
V. Series. [DNLM: 1. Ethics, Medical-congresses. 2. Morals
congresses. 3. Psychiatry-congresses. 4. Sociology-congresses.
WM 62 M828 1984]
B3279.H94A129 voL 20 142'.7 s 85-23258
[B829.5] [142'.7]
ISBN-13: 978-90-277-2085-6 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-009-4538-8
001: 10. 1007/978-94-009-4538-8
Published by D. Reidel Publishing Company,
P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, Holland.
Sold and distributed in the U.S.A. and Canada
by Kluwer Academic Publishers
190 Old Derby Street, Hingham, MA 02043, U.S.A.
In all other countries, sold and distributed
by Kluwer Academic Publishers Group,
P.O. Box 322, 3300 AH Dordrecht, Holland.
All Rights Reserved
© 1986 by D. Reidel Publishing Company
Reprint of the original edition 1986
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner
TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE THEME / The Thread of the Moral Significance of Life
Running through the Human Sciences vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ~
PART I
THE HUMAN PERSON AND THE HUMAN SCIENCES
ANNA-TERESA TYMIENIECKA / The Moral Sense and the
Human Person within the Fabric of Communal Life 3
RICHARD F. MOLLICA / Psychiatry in Quest after Orientation 101
JOHN R. SCUDDER, Jr. and ANNE H. BISHOP / The Moral
Sense and Health Care 125
GODWIN SOGOLO / On a Sociocultural Conception of Health
and Disease 159
H. TELLENBACH / The Education of a Medical Student 175
PART II
THE MORAL SENSE IN PSYCHIATRY: THE SWITCH
FROM THE ISOLATING APPROACH TO THAT OF
"TRANSACTING" WITH THE OTHER
CHARLES E. SCOTT / The Moral Sense and the Invisible
Object 187
PATRICK DE GRAMONT / The Genesis of a Purposeful Self 193
KARL-ERNST BUHLER / The Unfolding of "Benevolent Senti-
ment" as the Basis of Psychotherapy 207
BRUNO CALLIERI / Clinical Phenomenology as the "De
mythologising" of Psychiatry: The Movement toward the
Other 225
JOHN DOLIS / Theoretical Foundations of Psychiatry: The
(K)not of Being as a (W)hole 231
v
VI TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART III
CIRCUITS OF COMMUNICATION
AARON L. MISHARA / A Phenomenological Approach to
Language Acquisition and Autism in Terms of a Motor
Unconscious 249
EUGENE T. GENDLIN / Process Ethics and the Political
Question 265
PART IV
PSYCHIC CIRCUITS OF SENSIBILITY AND MORALLY
SIGNIFICANT SPONTANEITIES
CHUNG-YING CHENG / Natural Spontaneities and Morality
in Confucian Philosophy 279
ERLING ENG / Pathei Mathos - The Knowledge of Suffering 289
MONIQUE SCHNEIDER / Le visible et Ie tangible comme
paradigmes du savoir 297
PART V
THE LIFE-WORLD AND THE SPECIFICALLY MORAL
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE COMMUNAL/SOCIAL
WORLD
DALLAS LASKEY / The Constitution of the Human Com
munity: Value Experience in the Thought of Edmund
Husserl; an Axiological Approach to Ethics 315
JULIE A. MURPHY / Intersubjectivity and the Value of the
Other 331
JOSEPH J. KOCKELMANS / Phenomenological Conceptions
of the Life-World 339
ALEKSANDER GELLA / Controversies about Humanism in
Sociology 357
EDWARD VACEK / The Function of Norms in Social Existence 369
MARK C. THELIN / Chinese Values: A Sociologist's View 393
HANS MARTIN SASS / The Moral A Priori and the Diversity
of Cultures 407
INfJEX OF NAMES 423
ANNA-TERESA TYMIENIECKA
The Theme
THE THREAD OF THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF
LIFE RUNNING THROUGH THE HUMAN SCIENCES
The present volume contains a collection of research studies marking
the second major step in the progress of our work which should be
considered as the "phenomenological praxeology of knowledge." In our
first major effort, represented by the volume entitled Foundations of
Morality, Human Rights and the Human Sciences (Analecta Husserliana,
volume 15), we surveyed the problems that the human sciences share
with phenomenologically - or just philosophically - oriented inquiries.
We have encountered a major thread running through the heart of the
human sciences, namely, that of moral.concern, moral attitude, or moral
right which the human individual exercises or is expected to exercise in
social interactions as well as in intimately private experiences. This
thread leads as a filum Ariadne directly to the phenomenology of the
human being in a philosophical perspective.
The present collection of studies following this thread enters into the
primogenital core shared by philosophy and the sciences of man: the
significant differentiation of the individualizing life. With the change of
perspective from the nature of human discourse to that of life we gain a
unique insight into life's interdependencies and discover that reflection
upon life and the enactment of life are intimately interwoven with moral
issues.
Cohcern with ethical codes, rules, and principles are of crucial
significance for societal life and have attained particular prominence in
the present. The question of "ethics" is the center of attention in the
cultural, professional, business, and political life of today. What can the
philosophy of today contribute to the enigmatic status of ethical issues
within human life? How can philosophy clarify the disarray of points of
view, confused issues, and seemingly insoluble paradoxes contained in
"medical ethics" and which involve options ''for'' or "against" life? Can
there be an explanation that would remedy the sophisms with reference
to which institutions claim to "care" for the rights of citizens while in
fact deceiving them as well as themselves?
vii
Vlll THE THEME
In the midst of present controversies, we are led to ask whether there
is not a basic misunderstanding at the root of the so-called "ethical"
attitude. In these ethical conflicts we raise questions concerning the
nature and origin of ethical norms, rules, and principles which are
explicitly or tacitly assumed to regulate human conduct. Are these
regulations established for utilitarian purposes, or do they represent
ideals innate to the human mind and meant to raise human life from
ruthless egotism? Are they sui generis, autonomous with respect to the
changing social systems that govern individual existence, or should they
be seen, in contrast, as relative to changing circumstances and shifts of
power? Whatever the answer, ethical codes appear in these questions as
abstract universal prescriptions to which actual human conduct is
supposed to measure up but in concrete practice hardly ever does.
This discrepancy between theory and practice - which appears
inseparable from the very nature of philosophical perspectives within
which ethical theories are formulated - makes us wonder whether
ethics per se has any but a strictly speCUlative interest. And yet questions
concerning human conduct are of paramount significance. Must philos
ophy remain absolutely helpless with respect to this discrepancy?
In the present volume we propose to remedy this hitherto persistent
sense of helplessness. In the phenomenological praxeology of knowledge
that brings forth the "transactional analysis," the theory and praxis of life
will come together.
We are, indeed, proposing a new approach to their treatment such
that the gap between ethical theory, concrete human behavior, and self
experience may be overcome. To accomplish this objective, we must
radically alter the direction of our attention. From the ratiocinations
about principles, rules, norms, values, experiences, etc., that are pre
scribed, desired, or recommended - assumed to be already given -
of "ethical" conduct, we will focus on the origin of actual human con
duct in life affairs. We will state that every sector of current life
an<t culture is suffused with what we call "moral" language, "moral"
appreciations, "moral" judgments, "moral" feelings, etc. We will then
naturally raise the question: What is the specific element, quality of
feeling, valuation, language, human relations, or self-experience that we
call "moral" and that is expressed in infinitely varied nuances? Does this
moral element which permeates human affairs, as well as the inward life
of human beings, stem from the genius or inspiration of lawgivers who
brought it into societal life as directives and constraints necessary to
THE THEME ix
regulate communal life, or did it emerge from the nature of communal
ties themselves?
Both of these questions lead us down the wrong tracks. The proper
locus for the disentanglement of the links between the human being and
his fellowman whence the societal life circuit emerges has to be sought .
elsewhere, namely, at the source of the human significance of life.
In the reseach programs carried on by the International Society for
Phenomenology and Human Sciences we have, in fact, radically
reversed the direction of approaching the significance of "ethical"
conflicts in human existence. By going to the heart of things, namely, to
the Human Condition as it reveals itself within the constructive advance
of the individualizing life, we find in the Moral Sense the factor of moral
valuation, sensibility, inclination, and judgment instilled into founda
tional human functioning.
The moral sense, as the virtuality of the Human Condition, allows the
individual to establish a link with the Other in a morally significant
"transaction". The societal network of the life-world emerges with
human transactions, and the individual bringing this network about
becomes a fully human person. In human transactions reflection and
life-enactment - theory and practice - are just two instruments through
which moral benevolence establishes and promotes the essentially
societal existence of the human person.
Opening with the focus upon the human person seen in the perspec
tive of the human transaction, our book extends into a vast spectrum of
investigations in the fields of psychology, medical ethics, psychiatry,
sociology, and philosophy of culture; it pursues the various facets of the
moral thread within the personal and societal existence of the human
being.
May it open new roads toward the fundamental revision of the status,
formulation, and significance of moral and ethical issues that are vital
for our time.
A-T. T.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This volume contains research work presented at the Third Phenome
nology and Psychiatry Conference held by our International Society for
Phenomenology and the Human Sciences on the theme, THE "MORAL
SENSE": TOWARD PHENOMENOLOGICAL GUIDELINES FOR
PSYCHIATRIC THERAPEUTICS, 25-26 April 1984 in Cambridge,
Mass., as well as a selection of studies which were read at our continuing
program, the Boston Forum for the Interdisciplinary Phenomenology of
Man, during the years 1982-83 on the premises of the Institute in
Cambridge, Mass.
Our precious collaborators deserve our warmest appreciation for
their dedication to our common effort.
Parts of Chapter One of Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka's Monographic
Study in this volume have been previously published in Analecta Hus
serliana, Vol. XV (1983), and also in the book entitled Reproductive
Technologies and the Human Person (St. Louis: Pope John 23rd Center,
1984).
A-T.T.
xi