Between Daily Routine and Violent Protest

Ernst Wolff

book: Between Daily Routine and Violent Protest

Open Access Published by De Gruyter 2021

Between Daily Routine and Violent Protest

Interpreting the Technicity of Action

Ernst Wolff

Funded by: KU Leuven

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110725049

Overview
Contents

About this book

Most human action has a technical dimension. This book examines four components of this technical dimension.

First, in all actions, various individual, organizational or institutional agents combine actional capabilities with tools, institutions, infrastructure and other elements by means of which they act. Second, the deployment of capabilities and means is permeated by ethical aspirations and hesitancies. Third, all domains of action are affected by these ethical dilemmas. Fourth, the dimensions of the technicity of action are typical of human life in general, and not just a regional or culturally specific phenomenon.

In this study, an interdisciplinary approach is adopted to encompass the broad anthropological scope of this study and combine this bigger picture with detailed attention to the socio-historical particularities of action as it plays out in different contexts. Hermeneutics (the philosophical inquiry into the human phenomena of meaning, understanding and interpretation) and social science (as the study of all human affairs) are the two main disciplinary orientations of this book.

This study clarifies the technical dimension of the entire spectrum of human action ranging from daily routine to the extreme of violent protest.

Offers encompassing interpretive theory of technical dimension of all action
Theorizes descriptively neutrally and lays foundation for the critique of, and responsibility in, action
Draws on Ricoeur’s hermeneutics and a variety of social theories

Author information

Ernst Wolff, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.

Topics

Frontmatter Open Access Download PDF	I
Preface Open Access Download PDF	V
Contents Open Access Download PDF	VII
Introduction
The Technical Dimension of Action Open Access Download PDF	1
Part 1: The Technicity of Action: Capabilities and Means
Chapter 1: The Effectiveness of Symbols: Mediology and Hermeneutics Open Access Download PDF	33
Chapter 2: Habitus – Means – Worldliness Open Access Download PDF	58
Chapter 3: Human Capabilities in the Light of Incapabilities Open Access Download PDF	83
Chapter 4: Organized Action: Agency, (In)capabilities and Means Open Access Download PDF	103
Chapter 5: The Hermeneutics of Human Capabilities and the Theory of Structuration Open Access Download PDF	128
Intermediate Reflection: Tools for Critique Open Access Download PDF	159
Part 2: Finding Compromises in Practice
Chapter 6: Of What Is “Ricoeur” the Name? Or, Philosophising at the Edge Open Access Download PDF	167
Chapter 7: Acts of Violence as Political Competence? From Ricoeur to Mandela and Back Open Access Download PDF	191
Chapter 8: Justice Despite Institutions. Struggling for a Good Life from the Destitute Edge of Society Open Access Download PDF	214
Conclusion
An Integrated View of the Technicity of Action and the Question of Responsibility Open Access Download PDF	247
Bibliography Open Access Download PDF	272
Author Index Open Access Download PDF	288
Subject Index Open Access Download PDF	292

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Philosophers, social theorists, sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists, libraries, institutes
Pages
- Front matter: 11
- Main content: 296
Illustrations
- Tables: 1
Keywords: Action; hermeneutics; technicity; ethics

eBook

Published: June 21, 2021
ISBN: 9783110725049

Hardcover

Published: June 21, 2021
ISBN: 9783110724974