Abstract
This paper presents the concept of the idealization of the interchangeability of phases of life as an enhancement, or rather as a further development of Alfred Schutz’s general thesis of the reciprocity of perspectives. It claims that the according figure of thought is a constitutive part of acts of understanding in everyday life where, in order to understand each other, individuals of different age-groups have to overcome the difference of perspectives that are attached to their particular ages. This is accomplished by a specific assumption that is also applied in the case of intrasubjective, autobiographical understanding. By discussing its sociological significance as well as its philosophical background, this paper introduces the idealization of the interchangeability of phases of life as a fundamental and universal figure of understanding.
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Notes
Published so far only in German as „Das Problem der Personalität in der Sozialwelt“ (Schutz 2003).
Here it becomes clear that intrasubjective understanding leans on social typifications (which are centered in the subsequent chapters).
Translation by the author; the German title reads: “Individuum und Gemeinschaft”.
Translation by the author; the German original reads: „das war ich einmal bzw. werde ich einmal sein“ (Litt 1926: 84).
Translation by the author; the German original reads: „Es steht für mich in der denkbar unmittelbarsten Weise und vor jeder erdenklichen Reflexion auf diesem Punkte fest, daß das, was heute als ein ‚Gestern’ in mir gegenwärtig ist, nicht auch ‚an sich’ ein Gestern war, daß es vielmehr so durchaus in sich selbst gegründet, in sich selbst war, daß es dieses mein aktuelles ‚Heute’ mit gleichem Rechte zu seinem ‚Morgen’ erklären durfte“ (Litt 1926: 85; original emphasis).
The readiness to allow the former ego to determine one’s present actions will typically decline when the particular past ego falls in to the last category differentiated by Schutz, when it has already ‘died off’.
The relation of pledge and contract is aptly exposed in the conversation between Faust and Mephistopheles in the 4th scene of Goethe’s Faust (Goethe 2006: 53). When Mephistopheles asks Faust to write down a contract stating their famous bet, the latter replies:
Demand’st thou, Pedant, too, a document?
Hast never known a man, nor proved his word’s intent?
Is’t not enough, that what I speak to-day
Shall stand, with all my future days agreeing?
In all its tides sweeps not the world away,
And shall a promise bind my being?
Yet this delusion in our hearts we bear:
Who would himself therefrom deliver?
Blest he, whose bosom Truth makes pure and fair!
No sacrifice shall he repent of ever.
Nathless a parchment, writ and stamped with care,
A spectre is, which all to shun endeavor.
The word, alas! dies even in the pen,
And wax and leather keep the lordship then.
An idealization which in fact implies a set of further idealizations (Folter 1983: 167 ff.).
This is simultaneously the reason why the concept of biography is a social figure (see Rosenthal 1995: 12), thus turning biographical research into a socio-scientific discipline rather than a psychological one.
For the differentiation between monothetic and polythetic reconstruction, see Husserl 1980: §§ 118, 119.
In this regard, Simmel (1980) identifies a particular type of understanding which he calls “historical understanding”.
For Schutz’s concept of in-order-to- and because-of-motives see Schutz 1997: §§ 17, 18.
Refer to the glossary of Grey’s book where aging is defined as a word “used in many senses, but the one that’s important for our purpose is biological aging” (2007: 364; original emphasis).
Translation by the author; the German original reads „In allen Gesellschaften sind einige Verhaltensweisen normativ an besondere Altersstufen gebunden“ (Popitz 2011: 114). In the same vein, Eisenstadt (2003: 22) remarks that ”we know of no society which does not differentiate between various ’ages’ and does not define them through the norms and values of its cultural tradition”.
Popitz’ observation may allude to a structural functionalist necessity: every society must divide between those who are in charge and those who have yet to be raised to bear responsibility in the future.
See also Irmhild Saake’s instructive considerations on the topic (2006: 70 ff.).
Translation by the author; the German original reads: „Aufgrund ihrer Zerstreuung entfaltet die Zeit keine ordnende Kraft mehr. So entstehen keine prägenden oder entscheidenden Einschnitte im Leben. Die Lebenszeit wird nicht mehr durch Abschnitte, Abschlüsse, Schwellen und Übergänge gegliedert. Vielmehr eilt man von einer Gegenwart zur anderen. So altert man, ohne alt zu werden“ (Han 2012: 17; original emphasis). The concept of temporal diffusion (“temporale Zerstreuung”) is an alternative draft in contradistinction to Hartmut Rosa’s (2010) notion of acceleration. In Han’s opinion, the latter is only one symptom of the former phenomenon.
Realizing that the determination of biographical phases is socially constructed raises the question whether the idealization of the interchangeability of phases of life is to be conceived as some kind of a priori knowledge, or whether it has to be learned in the course of socialization. This question applies to the general thesis at large. An answer requires extensive reflections on ontogenesis that indeed would go far beyond the scope of this paper.
This is firstly true of the idealization of congruent systems of relevances, rather than the idealization of interchangeable standpoints.
Perhaps the most influential conceptualization in the former context is the one of Morgan (1964) who differentiated between savagery, barbarism, and civilization as the three universal stages of cultural development. The aforementioned Spengler likewise uses a tripartite scheme. However in his theory it describes a process which each particular culture has to perform on its own terms: “For every Culture has its own Civilization” (1926: 31; original emphasis). Spengler can therefore be said to be one of the first cultural relativists. See also Fabian’s (1983: 37 ff.) reflections on coevalness as a specific problem of anthropology.
Note by the author: Although Carver’s dictum is well known, I was not able to find an official quotation.
This is of major importance e.g. for the debate on generational equity (see Williamson et al. 1999). As Dallinger (2000: 168) argues, the acceptance of a governmentally organized intergenerational contract depends on its degree of justice. From the point of view taken in this paper, one must add that a basic prerequisite for such acceptance has to be seen in successful acts of intergenerational understanding.
A passage from a speech by former US Senator Albert Beveridge pinpoints the structural similarity between the raising of children and a particular understanding of politics: “The Opposition tells us that we ought not to govern a people without their consent. I answer, the rule of liberty that all just government derives its authority from the consent of the governed, applies only to those who are capable of self-government. We govern the Indians without their consent, we govern our territories without their consent, we govern our children without their consent” (Beveridge 1968: 49).
It may be worth mentioning that the moral imperatives involved in the notion of switching perspectives vary with the theoretical concept one uses. When arguing on the basis of Schutz’s general thesis, the resulting maxim of action is located somewhere near the Golden Rule, as the process of universalization principally refers to an individual’s consciousness and will. By contrast, if one implies Mead’s concept of taking the role of the other, then the consequences converge with the model of supererogation, as the point of view of the other is adopted in the constitution of the self from beginning on—as illustrated by Mead’s example of the Good Samaritan (1967: 258).
The idea of an age-homogeneous society may be an interesting topic for utopian novels (like William Golding’s Lord of the Flies).
This is a point where socio-political considerations come into play. The discussions in Germany concerning the abolishment of military draft and its substitution with civilian service are an example from the more recent past.
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This essay represents an enhanced version of a speech given at the Annual Conference of the SPHS (Society for Phenomenology and the Human Sciences) in Philadelphia, October 2011. The author would like to thank Jochen Dreher for instructive comments and Sophie Carroll for lectureship. The work was supported by funds made available by the “Cultural Foundations of Integration” Center of Excellence at the University of Konstanz, established in the framework of the German Federal and State Initiative for Excellence.
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Göttlich, A. “When I Was Young” The Idealization of the Interchangeability of Phases of Life. Hum Stud 36, 217–233 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10746-013-9255-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10746-013-9255-3