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ABSTRACT
The concepts of resilience and vulnerability have experienced an enormous upswing over the past years in different fields of inquiry. While vulnerability has played an eminent role in sociology, feminist studies, theology, and philosophy for some time, resilience has recently become increasingly important. Several high-ranking international academic alliances have been formed, which conduct interdisciplinary research into resilience. In the following, I will explore the conceptual triad of vulnerability, crisis, and resilience to point at some historical-semantic roots of this contemporary discourse and to introduce two philosophical paths to elucidating the normative and experiential dimensions of it.
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Notes
1. Butler, Precarious Life; and Butler, Frames of War.
2. Nussbaum, Frontiers of Justice.
3. See also Fineman, “The Vulnerable Subject,” 9; and ‘Vulnerability initially should be understood as arising from our embodiment, which carries with it the ever-present possibility of harm, injury, and misfortune from mildly adverse to catastrophically devastating events, whether accidental, intentional, or otherwise. Individuals can attempt to lessen the risk or mitigate the impact of such events, but they cannot eliminate their possibility. Understanding vulnerability begins with the realization that many such events are ultimately beyond human control.’
4. Goodin, Protecting the Vulnerable.
5. Goodin, 6.
6. Husserl, The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology.
7. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
8. Han-Pile, “Hope, Powerlessness, and Agency,” 179.
9. Weizsäcker, Der Gestaltkreis.
10. Endreß and Rampp, “Resilienz Als Prozess Transformativer Autogenese. Schritte Zu Einer Soziologischen Theorie,”.
11. Cf., e.g., Sautermeister, “Selbstgestaltung und Sinnsuche unter fragilen Bedingungen,”.
12. Cf. Antonovsky, “The Salutogenic Model as a Theory to Guide Health Promotion,”.
13. Cf. Leipold and Greve, “Resilience: A Conceptual Bridge between Coping and Development,” 40.
14. Cf. Goldspink and Kay, “Organizations as Self-Organizing and Sustaining Systems,”.
15. As the social psychologist Grit Hein explains: ‘One central aspect of social competence is the ability to generate appropriate emotional responses in social contexts, an ability that likely requires empathy.’ (Hein, “Empathy and Resilience in a Connected World,” 144).
16. Cf. Bandura (Citation1977); and more comprehensively, Bandura (Citation1997).
17. Slaby, “Kritik Der Resilienz,”.
18. McGreavy, “Resilience as Discourse,”.
19. Nida-Rümelin and Gutwald, “Der Philosophische Gehalt Des Resilienzbegriffs. Normative Aspekte,”.
20. Nida-Rümelin and Gutwald, 252.
21. Ibid., 257.
22. Ibid., 258.
23. Ibid., 261.
24. Cf. the famous section on ‘The Look’ from Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology, 252 ff.
25. Cf. Breyer, “Violence as Violation of Experiential Structures,”.
26. Rinofner-Kreidl, “Intuition Und Resilienz,”; and Rosa, Resonanz.
27. Cf. Geuter, “Begriff und Definition der Körperpsychotherapie,”; and Quinten and Munzert, ‘Tanztherapie’.
28. Cf. Ong et al., “Psychological Resilience, Positive Emotions, and Successful Adaptation to Stress in Later Life,”.
29. Cf. Tugade and Fredrickson, “Resilient Individuals Use Positive Emotions to Bounce Back from Negative Emotional Experiences,”.
30. Cf. Ramseyer and Tschacher, “Nonverbal Synchrony in Psychotherapy,”.
31. Cf. Foucault, “L’éthique Du Souci de Soi Comme Pratique de Liberté,”.
32. Cf. Fuchs, “The Phenomenology and Development of Social Perspectives,”.
33. Cf. Ong, Edwards, and Bergeman, “Hope as a Source of Resilience in Later Adulthood,”.
34. Breyer, “Phantom Sensations: A Neurophenomenological Exploration of Body Memory,”.
35. Cf. Hudson, “Overcoming Adversity,”.
36. Bonß, “Karriere und sozialwissenschaftliche Potenziale des Resilienzbegriffs,” 15.
37. Tomasello, ‘On the Interpersonal Origins of Self-Concept’.
38. Manusco and Sarbin, “The Self-Narrative in the Enactment of Roles,”.
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Thiemo Breyer
Thiemo Breyer is Professor for Phenomenology and Anthropology as well as Director of the Husserl Archives at the University of Cologne. He has held fellowships and visiting professorships among others at Harvard University, Université de Montréal, and Doshisha University Kyoto. He is co-editor of the international journal ‘Phänomenologische Forschungen’ (Meiner) and editor of the book series ‘Schriften zur Phänomenologie und Anthropologie’ (WBG). Among his book publications are ‘On the Topology of Cultural Memory’ (2007), ‘Attentionalität und Intentionalität’ (2011), and ‘Verkörperte Intersubjektivität und Empathie’ (2015).