Journal Articles by Alexis Emanuel Gros
Human studies, 2024
In the present paper, I analyze the complex relationship of tension between Critical Theory and p... more In the present paper, I analyze the complex relationship of tension between Critical Theory and phenomenology from a sociological-theoretical perspective. I start from two theses. The first one is that one of the primary reasons for the antagonism between these two paradigms lies in their ideal-typically opposed assessments of the role of 'meaning-adequacy' in social research. The second one is that in recent years, there has been a strong rapprochement of Critical Theory with (social) phenomenology. This shift, fundamentally embodied in Hartmut Rosa's work, can be understood as the culminating point of a progressive turn towards meaning-adequacy within the Frankfurt School. In order to unfold these two theses, I will proceed in three steps. First (1), I will present the main outlines of the relationship of tension between the two traditions from both a historico-intellectual and a systematic perspective. Second (2), I will focus on the contemporary readings of the Schutzian notion of 'meaning-adequacy' and discuss their value for better understanding the historical opposition between the two paradigms, as well as their recent rapprochement. Third (3), I will sketch the key features of Rosa's sociology of world-relations, understood as a phenomenological Critical Theory that shows a strong commitment to a radicalized version of the meaning-adequacy postulate.
Schutzian Research 12, 2020
The present paper constitutes an attempt to articulate, systematize, and further develop the impl... more The present paper constitutes an attempt to articulate, systematize, and further develop the implicit traces of a phenomenological critical theory that, according to Michael Barber's reading, are to be found in Schutz's thought. It is my contention that a good way to achieve this aim is by reading Schutz against the background of novel, phenomenologically and hermeneutically informed accounts of Critical Theory in the tradition of the Frankfurt School, such as Hartmut Rosa's. In order to achieve the stated objective, I will proceed in four steps. First (1), I will briefly reconstruct the mostly negative reception of phenomenology, the interpretive social sciences, and Schutz by both the Frankfurt School and contemporary critical social theory. Second (2), I will present Barber's alternative reading of Schutzian phenomenology as entailing an implicit ethics and a rudimentary critical theory based thereon. Third (3), I will sketch out Rosa's formal model of Critical Theory as an heuristic means for articulating Schutz's unspoken social-critical insights. Finally (4), establishing a dialogue between Barber's reading of Schutz and Rosa's account, I will provide a preliminary articulation of Schutz's rudimentary critical theory.
Revista Científica FOZ, 2019
In this paper, I intend to systematically reconstruct the main lines of Hartmut Rosa's phenomenol... more In this paper, I intend to systematically reconstruct the main lines of Hartmut Rosa's phenomenological approach to Critical Theory. In order to do so, I will proceed in three steps. First (1), as a preliminary, I will briefly present Axel Honneth's conception of Critical Theory of Society. Second (2), I will sketch out Rosa's account of the fundamental features of a contemporary version of Critical Theory. Finally (3), I will outline his novel "sociology of the relationship to the world", especially focusing on the phenomenological opposition between "resonance" and "alienation".
Human Studies, 2021
In the present paper, I intend to systematically revisit Thomas Luckmann's account of the relatio... more In the present paper, I intend to systematically revisit Thomas Luckmann's account of the relation between phenomenology and sociology and to assess its strengths and weaknesses in terms of constructive criticism. In order to achieve this aim, I will proceed in three steps. First (1), I will reconstruct the Luckmannian approach by means of an exhaustive analysis of his programmatic texts. Second (2), I will identify its strengths and merits. And finally (3), I will discuss its shortcomings and try to correct them in two ways, namely, by bringing Luckmann into a dialogue with other sociological-theoretical and phenomenological accounts, and by counteracting some of his problematic claims with alternative insights contained in his own work.
Revista de Sociología, 38(1), 2023
Las publicaciones de Resonanz y Kritik von Lebensformen, de Hartmut Rosa y Rahel Jaeggi, respec... more Las publicaciones de Resonanz y Kritik von Lebensformen, de Hartmut Rosa y Rahel Jaeggi, respectivamente, marcan un “giro ontológico-social” en la Teoría Crítica con-temporánea. A pesar de la gran resonancia actual de ambos autores, en la literatura secundaria no existen tratamientos pormenorizados de sus ontologías sociales: la teoría de la relación con el mundo (TRM) y la teoría de las formas de vida (TFV). El objetivo del presente artículo es doble. En primer lugar (1), pretende reconstruir sistemáticamente la TRM de Rosa a modo de ilustración del giro ontológico-social de la Teoría Crítica actual. En segundo término (2), busca ofrecer algunas reflexiones sobre los dilemas epistemológicos implicados en la “aplicación” de ontologías sociales de esta clase al análisis de realidades latinoamericanas.
Meta: Research in Hermeneutics, Phenomenology, and Practical Philosophy, Vol. XV, Vol. 2, 2023
Rahel Jaeggi is one of the leading figures of contemporary Critical Theory. In November 2023, she... more Rahel Jaeggi is one of the leading figures of contemporary Critical Theory. In November 2023, she visited Argentina on occasion of the celebration of the I National Conference of Critical Theory, commemorating the 100 th anniversary of the establishment of the Institute for Social Research at Frankfurt am Main. In the present interview, which was conducted during her days in Buenos Aires, she engages in a productive dialogue about her biography, the development of her work, her account of social critique, the current state of Critical Theory, and issues related to capitalism and colonialism.
Revista Colombiana de Sociología, 2023
La fenomenología es una corriente de pensamiento fundada a comienzos del siglo XX por Edmund Huss... more La fenomenología es una corriente de pensamiento fundada a comienzos del siglo XX por Edmund Husserl y continuada por autores como Max Scheler, Martin Heidegger, Aron Gurwitsch, Eugen Fink, Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Emmanuel Lévinas y Michel Henry. A pesar de su carácter y origen netamente filosóficos, se trata de una tradición multidisciplinaria. El máximo exponente de la misma en el campo de la sociología es Alfred Schutz, internacionalmente reconocido como el padre fundador de la fenomenología social o sociología fenomenológica. Salvo contadas excepciones, en la sociología hispanoparlante prácticamente no existen discusiones exhaustivas y actualizadas con la fenomenología en general ni con la obra de Schutz y sus discípulos en particular. El déficit fenomenológico de la literatura sociológica en castellano es consecuencia de cuatro obstáculos epistemológicos: a) barreras idiomáticas, que dificultan el acceso a la bibliografía relevante; b) complicaciones en la relación interdisciplinaria entre filosofía y sociología; c) prejuicios negativos contra el abordaje fenomenológico y fenomenológico de lo social; y d) usos descuidados e imprecisos del término “fenomenología”. El presente artículo parte de la siguiente premisa: solo puede comprenderse la relevancia de la fenomenología para el quehacer sociológico si se cuenta con un entendimiento acabado de la misma en su sentido filosófico original. Con el objetivo de corregir el estado deficitario de la literatura en nuestra lengua, en este texto me propongo brindar una introducción actualizada al abordaje fenomenológico, especialmente dirigida a sociólogos. El texto está estructurado en cuatro apartados. En el primero se esboza una definición preliminar de la fenomenología como “estilo” teórico; en el segundo se circunscribe su objeto de estudio: el campo de la experiencia preteórica; en la tercera sección se exponen los rasgos fundamentales del método fenomenológico y en la cuarta se brinda una visión de conjunto del modo en que la fenomenología puede aplicarse en el campo de la sociología.
Water, 2024
In recent years, significant advancements have been made in the field of social water research. T... more In recent years, significant advancements have been made in the field of social water research. This is especially reflected in the emergence and consolidation of three influential theoretical approaches in hydrology, human geography, and anthropology: socio-hydrology, hydrosocial theory, and the multiple ontologies of water, respectively. While the present paper acknowledges the great merits of each of these perspectives, it starts from the identification of two important shortcomings in current social water research: the dispersion of the literature in distinct disciplinary subfields and the lack of specifically sociological approaches to hydrosocial issues. Accordingly, the aim of this paper is twofold: to offer a "big picture" of current social water research from a sociologicaltheoretical perspective and to initiate a fruitful conversation between sociologists and social water researchers from other disciplines.
Revista Castalia, 37, 2022
RESUMEN En este artículo me propongo reflexionar acerca de las consecuencias de la aceleración ta... more RESUMEN En este artículo me propongo reflexionar acerca de las consecuencias de la aceleración tardomoderna en las formas de vida, esto es, en los órdenes culturales colectivos que encauzan y organizan la coexistencia cotidiana. La estrategia que utilizaré para ello consiste en establecer un diálogo entre la teoría de la aceleración social de Hartmut Rosa y la concepción de las formas de vida de Rahel Jaeggi. El texto está estructurado en tres secciones. En la primera de ellas (1) reconstruyo los lineamientos fundamentales de la posición de Jaeggi. En la segunda (2), presento muy brevemente la concepción rosiana de la aceleración. La tercera y última sección (3) está dedicada a poner en vinculación ambas perspectivas.
Argumentos. Revista de Crítica Social, 2020
Resumen: En este artículo me propongo reconstruir sistemáticamente los lineamientos principales d... more Resumen: En este artículo me propongo reconstruir sistemáticamente los lineamientos principales de la novedosa teoría crítica desarrollada por Hartmut Rosa: la sociología de las relaciones con el mundo. Para ello, procedo en tres pasos. En primer lugar (1), expongo el modo en que el autor concibe las tareas contemporáneas de una Teoría Crítica de la Sociedad en la tradición de la Escuela de Frankfurt. En segundo término (2), doy cuenta del carácter fenomenológico de su abordaje y examino la oposición conceptual sobre la que el mismo se basa, a saber, aquella entre resonancia y alienación. Finalmente (3), analizo la tesis según la cual la lógica (tardo)moderna de la aceleración social produce sistemáticamente relaciones alienadas con el mundo.
Abstract: In this paper, I intend to systematically reconstruct the main lines of Hartmut Rosa's novel version of Critical Theory, namely, the "Sociology of the Relationships to the World". In order to do so, I will proceed in three steps. First (1) I will sketch out his account of the tasks and features of a contemporary Critical Theory of Society in the tradition of the Frankfurt School. Second (2), I will show the phenomenological nature of his approach and examine the conceptual opposition on which it rests, namely, that between "resonance" and "alienation". Finally (3), Í will analyze his claim that the logic of "social acceleration" and the principle of "dynamic stabilization" typical of (late-)modern societies systematically produce alienated relationships to the world.
META, Vol 11, No. 1., 2019
The present paper aims to provide a contribution to the self-clarification of social scientists w... more The present paper aims to provide a contribution to the self-clarification of social scientists with regard to the using and abusing of the concept of "lifeworld" [Lebenswelt] and its surrogates. With this aim, the author adopts a dual approach which draws upon the one used by the late Husserl in Die Krisis der europäischen Wissenschaft und die transzendentale Phänomenologie, namely: the combination of genealogical reflections on the origins and historic itinerary of the concept with phenomenological descriptions of the "thing itself". More precisely, the present article tries to systematically reconstruct Edmund Husserl"s phenomenological "proto-foundation" [Urstiftung] and Alfred Schutz"s "reprise" of the Lebenswelt.
Meta: Research in Hermeneutics, Phenomenology, and Practical Philosophy, 2020
Thomas Luckmann's Account of the Relation between Phenomenology and Sociology: A Critical Assessm... more Thomas Luckmann's Account of the Relation between Phenomenology and Sociology: A Critical Assessment of its Strengths and Weaknesses In the present paper, I intend to systematically revisit Thomas Luckmann's account of the relation between phenomenology and sociology, and to assess its strengths and weaknesses in terms of a constructive criticism. In order to achieve this aim, I will proceed in three steps. First (1), I will reconstruct his position by means of an exhaustive analysis of his programmatic texts. Second (2), I will identify its strengths and merits. And finally (3), I will expound its shortcomings and try to correct them by bringing Luckmann into dialogue with other sociological-theoretical and phenomenological accounts.
Forthcoming in R. Rizo Patrón (ed.), Methods and Problems. Current Phenomenological Perspectives and Research, 2019
Contemporary capitalist societies are accelerated social formations. Among other things, this mea... more Contemporary capitalist societies are accelerated social formations. Among other things, this means that they are characterized by constant and fast transformations in all spheres of life: technology, politics, culture, economy, etc. As experts in different disciplines argue, the dynamization of the lifeworld in late modernity has perturbing effects on subjective experience such as, for instance, the emergence of feelings of disorientation. In the present paper, I intend to phenomenologically analyze those effects. In order to do so, I will read Hartmut Rosa's theory of social acceleration through the lens of Alfred Schutz's social phenomenology.
Diferencia(s): Revista de Teoría Social Contemporánea, 7, 2019
El presente artículo intenta brindar un aporte al autoesclarecimiento y la autocomprensión de los... more El presente artículo intenta brindar un aporte al autoesclarecimiento y la autocomprensión de los cientistas sociales en lo que refiere al uso –y abuso– del concepto de "mundo de la vida" [Lebenswelt] y sus sucedáneos. Con este objetivo, se adopta un modo de proceder bifronte que se inspira en la metodología empleada por el Husserl tardío en la Krisis, a saber: la combinación de (a) reflexiones genealógicas acerca del surgimiento e itinerario histórico del concepto con (b) descripciones fenomenológicas de la "cosa" misma. En términos más precisos, se intenta reconstruir la "protofundación" [Urstiftung] filosófica del concepto por parte de Edmund Husserl y la "retoma" [reprise] científico-social del mismo efectuada por Alfred Schutz.
Ideas y Valores, 2018
La reconstrucción realizada en el presente artículo parte de la hipótesis de que pueden diferenci... more La reconstrucción realizada en el presente artículo parte de la hipótesis de que pueden diferenciarse dos tipos de objeciones schützianas al texto canónico de Husserl, a sa-ber: inmanentes y fundamentales. Las primeras remarcan las dificultades subyacentes en los pasos tomados por Husserl para resolver el problema de la intersubjetividad trascendental, mientras que las segundas cuestionan la pertinencia filosófica del problema mismo.
Civitas, 2017
Alfred Schutz tends to be falsely considered as an illustrious representative of social ontologic... more Alfred Schutz tends to be falsely considered as an illustrious representative of social ontological individualism. In this paper, I seek to correct this flawed interpretation of his work by means of a revisitation of his criticism of what I – taking up a Marxian term – call the “robinsonades“ intrinsic to Husserl’s 5th Cartesian Meditation. It is my contention that the systematic reconstruction of this classical criticism makes it possible to lay bare Schutz’s actual ontological account, namely: social ontological intersubjectivism.
Schutzian Research, 2019
There is a broad consensus that the study of social institutions is one of the fundamental concer... more There is a broad consensus that the study of social institutions is one of the fundamental concerns of the social sciences. The idea that phenomenology has ignored this topic is also widely accepted. As against this view, the present paper aims at demonstrating that especially Schutzian phenomenology—that is, the social phenomenological tradition started by Alfred Schutz and continued by Thomas Luckmann and Peter Berger, among others—provides rich insights on the nature and workings of social institutions that could contribute to enriching the current social-scientific debate on the issue. In order to show this, the authors attempt to unearth and systematically reconstruct Schutz’s and Berger and Luckmann’s insights on social institutions and to confront them with current approaches.
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Meta: Research in Hermeneutics, Phenomenology, and Practical Philosophy, 2017
The aim of this paper is to systematically analyze Schutz's phenomenological account of the typic... more The aim of this paper is to systematically analyze Schutz's phenomenological account of the typicality and habituality of everyday cognitive experience, and to identify the Husserlian leitmotifs that inform it. In order to do so, I will proceed in three steps. First (1), I will briefly present the main lines of Schutz " s theoretical project; second (2), I will scrutinize his Husserlian account of typification as a passive sort of interpretation; and finally (3), I will examine his –also Husserl-inspired– analysis of the structure and genesis of the habitualized stock of knowledge at hand.
Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 2017
Alfred Schutz is, without a doubt, one of the phenomenologists that contributed the most to the r... more Alfred Schutz is, without a doubt, one of the phenomenologists that contributed the most to the reflection on how to apply insights from phenomenological philosophy to the, empirical and theoretical, human and social sciences. However, his work tends to be neglected by many of the current advocates of phenomenology within these disciplines. In the present paper, I intend to remedy this situation. In order to do so, I will systematically revisit his mundane and social-scientifically oriented account of phenomenology, which, as I shall show, emerges from a theoretical confrontation with the Husserlian distinction between transcendental phenomenology and phenomenological psychology. (Ask me for the .pdf).
Schutzian Research, 2014
In this paper, I intend to show the relevance of Schutz’s account of interpersonal understanding ... more In this paper, I intend to show the relevance of Schutz’s account of interpersonal understanding within the context of the contemporary social cognition debate. Currently, the research on the nature of everyday interpersonal understanding is taking place almost exclusively within the fi eld of interdisciplinary cognitive science. Generally speaking, since the mid-nineties the so-called social cognition debate is dominated by two opposed theoretical outlooks which diverge concerning the ultimate mechanisms responsible for our understanding of Others, namely the theory-theory of mind (TT) and the simulation theory (ST). Yet, in the last couple of years, there is a phenomenological turn taking place in this debate. Thinkers like Zahavi, Gallagher and Overgaard, among others, return to classical phenomenological accounts of empathy—like those of Husserl, Stein, Scheler and Merleau-Ponty—to propose an alternative theoretical outlook on intersubjective understanding, namely the direct perception theory (DPT). However, this recuperation of classical phenomenological approaches to intersubjective comprehension is, to some extent, incomplete. Indeed, DPT supporters tend to neglect the valuable contributions that Schutz made to the study of this problem. This is quite curious, not only because Schutz’s phenomenological theory of interpersonal understanding agrees, to some degree, with the main thesis of the direct perception theory, but also because it contains insights that may be helpful to formulate a more solid and self-clarified version of it.
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Journal Articles by Alexis Emanuel Gros
Abstract: In this paper, I intend to systematically reconstruct the main lines of Hartmut Rosa's novel version of Critical Theory, namely, the "Sociology of the Relationships to the World". In order to do so, I will proceed in three steps. First (1) I will sketch out his account of the tasks and features of a contemporary Critical Theory of Society in the tradition of the Frankfurt School. Second (2), I will show the phenomenological nature of his approach and examine the conceptual opposition on which it rests, namely, that between "resonance" and "alienation". Finally (3), Í will analyze his claim that the logic of "social acceleration" and the principle of "dynamic stabilization" typical of (late-)modern societies systematically produce alienated relationships to the world.
Ask me for the .pdf
Abstract: In this paper, I intend to systematically reconstruct the main lines of Hartmut Rosa's novel version of Critical Theory, namely, the "Sociology of the Relationships to the World". In order to do so, I will proceed in three steps. First (1) I will sketch out his account of the tasks and features of a contemporary Critical Theory of Society in the tradition of the Frankfurt School. Second (2), I will show the phenomenological nature of his approach and examine the conceptual opposition on which it rests, namely, that between "resonance" and "alienation". Finally (3), Í will analyze his claim that the logic of "social acceleration" and the principle of "dynamic stabilization" typical of (late-)modern societies systematically produce alienated relationships to the world.
Ask me for the .pdf
de distanciamiento y confinamiento tomadas en todo el mundo para
combatirla, en el último año han proliferado los discursos acerca de
la “desaceleración” de la vida social. Tanto en el Sur como en el Norte
Global se habla de una ralentización abrupta de las actividades socioeconómicas provocada por el coronavirus y se discute acerca de las
consecuencias negativas y/o positivas de la misma. Este tópico aparece recursivamente no solo en conversaciones cotidianas, sino también
en los medios masivos de comunicación y en los ámbitos de la ciencia,
el deporte, el arte y la política. Algunos ejemplos pueden servir para
ilustrar esto.