Human Studies

Takakusa, Ken

2025 Human Studies

doi: 10.1007/s10746-024-09780-z

While phenomenologists have paid little attention to mediated sociality, the situation has recently been changing owing to the increasing dependence of social life on digital media. Alfred Schutz’s social phenomenology has gathered preeminent attention among phenomenological traditions as it reveals the structure of face-to-face and other types of social relationships. Although Shanyang Zhao’s concept of “consociated contemporaries” provided a reference point for the Schutzian studies of mediated sociality, he discarded the phenomenological aspects of Schutz’s ideas. To replace Zhao’s trichotomy of consociates, contemporaries, and consociated contemporaries with a more phenomenological taxonomy, this paper examines Schutz’s concepts of thou- and they-orientation. Emphasizing that my thou-orientation to you does not entail your thou-orientation to me and that the other-orientation is not always reciprocal, this paper argues that mediated sociality can be classified into five types: reciprocal thou-thou-orientation, reciprocal thou-they-orientation, reciprocal they-they-orientation, non-reciprocal thou-orientation, and non-reciprocal they-orientation. Reciprocal thou-they-orientation, such as the relationship between a streamer and viewers in online live streaming, is a form of sociality that has recently become conspicuous owing to high-speed and massive Internet communication. Finally, this paper adds some remarks on the implications for the phenomenological theory of online empathy.

Henke, Lisa Alexandra

2025 Human Studies

doi: 10.1007/s10746-025-09782-5

Melichar, Hannes Gustav

2025 Human Studies

doi: 10.1007/s10746-024-09775-w

Large parts of the Western philosophical tradition, powerful in Kant’s transcendental conception, have reserved the concept of autonomy for rational subjects that think and act on reasons. While this captures an essential aspect of autonomy, the dimensions of embodiment and vulnerability remain unreflected or are subsumed under the heteronomous conditions of the human subject. If the conception of autonomy, though, doesn’t start with the concept of a rational subject but from the perspective of living beings, autonomy and vulnerability seem intrinsically connected, as Jonas’ (1973; 1997) concept of “needful freedom” suggests. This article argues for a deep connection between human autonomy and vulnerability. Methodologically, the argument follows the life-mind-continuity thesis (Thompson, 2007) and lays out the embodied account of autonomy that enactivism offers. Two crucial moments are: 1. The organism can distance itself from the environment. 2. This enables it to establish its own norms. However, the norms of bodily self-regulation also render the organism vulnerable. This conception, though, needs specification for capturing human autonomy. As enactivists like E. Thompson assume, phenomenology is essential to theorizing about human autonomy. I will develop a phenomenological concept of autonomy starting from three notions of selfhood (Zahavi, 2008) and arguing for a central role of the reflective self for human autonomy. Reflection grounds both moments of autonomy: Self-distancing and the possibility of taking a stance by relying on reasons. In the phenomenological sense, autonomy is thus the ability to respond to reasons for which reflection is necessary. However, this ability is bound to a particular form of vulnerability that manifests in some psychopathologies. This vulnerability will be shown in conclusion by Blankenburg’s reflections on the role of autonomy in mental diseases.

Nishizaka, Aug; Suzuki, Minato

2025 Human Studies

doi: 10.1007/s10746-024-09761-2

This study empirically addresses some aspects of how seeing Japanese avant-garde dance performances (butô) is organized in interaction. Using conversation analysis, it analyzes two episodes in detail. In these episodes, different practices are used to perceptually restructure the appearance of a performance. In the first episode, a person explains the difference between the appearances of two performances by transforming modalities (such as verbalization and vocalization). In the second episode, a person directly points out the change in how a performance appears. We suggest, via the juxtaposition of these two episodes, that the difficulty of explaining the appearances of butô performances is the constitutive part of their appearances to which the participants themselves orient. The data are in Japanese with English translation.

Penttilä, Anna; Mertanen, Mikko

2025 Human Studies

doi: 10.1007/s10746-024-09779-6

Don Ihde’s postphenomenological theory of technological relations has proven its value for understanding the role material artifacts play in our lives. However influential it may be, some of his key concepts have remained ambiguous. In this paper, we analyze and critically evaluate how Ihde describes one of these concepts, namely, alterity relation (Alterity). Alterity describes how technologies appear to subjects as humanlike others, or, as Ihde calls them, quasi-others. We identify and discuss three key problems with Ihde’s account of Alterity, namely, objectness, focality, and continuum. We argue that an overarching issue is prevalent in his account of Alterity: a subtle and possibly unintended emphasis on the subject’s role in constituting technological otherness. This emphasis runs counter to the interrelational ontological foundations of postphenomenology. Moreover, it hinders postphenomenological research from fully addressing the ethical and moral dimensions of its framework. By clarifying these problems, we aim to provide a fruitful groundwork for further reconsiderations of the framework’s key concepts and for the improvement of postphenomenological investigations concerning the nature of artifacts: our multifaceted engagements with, in and through them.

Zhang, Junguo

2025 Human Studies

doi: 10.1007/s10746-024-09781-y

This paper delves into the realm of hermeneutical medicine, focusing on the physician-patient relationship through the lens of Gadamer’s hermeneutics. It argues that in this approach, true dialogue between patients and physicians does not silence or dominate one another, but rather allows for the discovery of new insights from shared experiences, including those of a negative nature. Gadamer rehabilitates prejudices in medical encounters. Through genuine conversation, both physicians and patients gain a better understanding of themselves, each other, and the illness at hand. Gadamer suggests that fruitful and meaningful conversation does not necessitate complete agreement but instead aims to expand individual horizons and foster the fusion of perspectives. This process represents a form of self-correction, and personal growth. Within this hermeneutical context, even as authorities, physicians acknowledge their limitations and willingly open themselves up to truly listen to patients, creating an environment where patients’ voices are heard and respected.

Serban, Claudia

2025 Human Studies

doi: 10.1007/s10746-024-09777-8

The alterity of children seems to raise some peculiar problems for empathy: the child is an alter ego whose difference is often regarded as abnormality or deficiency, and whose relation to adults is ineluctably asymmetric. Accordingly, two related threats endanger the respect and the acknowledgment of the child’s particular otherness: the denial of her subjectivity, as well as domination and violence. The paroxystic expression of these interconnected threats can be found in child abuse situations, which deserve special consideration from the standpoint of a phenomenology of intersubjectivity, embodiment and intercorporeality. At the same time, questions can be raised not only about the child abuse perpetrator’s lack of empathy for the child victim, but also about his or her own call for empathy. Combining a phenomenological approach inspired mostly by Husserl and a feminist approach that makes use of Foucault, the paper first attempts to show that the specific alterity of children and their subjectivity can and must be acknowledged in spite of the variations in embodiment between adults and children. The second moment of the inquiry defines the response of adults to the children’s peculiar otherness in terms of responsibility and care, and analyzes the potentialities for domination and abuse implied by the power of adults over children. Finally, the third and last part of the paper deals with the limits of empathy in front of the moral alterity of child abuse perpetrators, relying on Neige Sinno’s reflexive endeavor in Triste Tigre.