The pragmatization of love : a study of the concepts of hierarchy, encounter, and epoche

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Anna Jane Hinson (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
David E. Purpel

Abstract: This study is presented in narrative form and develops perspectives upon the topic of love. The foundational implication of this research is that in acknowledging our common ground we experience the mutuality from which we may prosper human well-being. Experiences of mutuality and reciprocity will be regarded as unfolding the realms of love. I intend to describe, contrast, and integrate concepts of hierarchy, and dialogical encounter to pose the situation of love. Hierarchy denotes stratification with an uneven distribution of control. The impulse to control can be witnessed in technology; thus our culture, in its utilitarianism, supports an environment which is looked upon as increasingly technological in its concerns and hierarchical in its composition. Division, alienation, and dehumanization are pervasive descriptors and indicative of destructiveness. Analysis of the concepts of hierarchy and encounter allows for the discussion of factors dehumanizing and humanizing the world and are bound within the theme of the pragmatization of love. This theme contains a two-fold meaning. One is articulated in objectification which lessens human being; and the other, the Utopian generative meaning, aspires toward bettering the world of shared living.

Additional Information

Publication
Dissertation
Language: English
Date: 1989
Subjects
Love
Interpersonal relations
Hierarchies

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