From within the thick of it: Human beings doing being human in languaged worlds

Abstract

In this commentary I note that Lipari and Bertau want to assume that we live immersed in a flowing, stranded, agential reality in which no-"thing" is separate from any-"thing" else. Thus rather than being wholly in control of the unfolding processes of importance to us, we need to see ourselves as essentially living within dialogical and hermeneutical, back-and-forth relations with the others and othernesses around us. So although we may assume our understandings occur as a result of our "thoughts," "ideas," or "theories," the fact is such nameable causal processes can only be seen as having been at work in people's performances after they have been performed. Something else altogether guides us in the performance of our actions than the nameable "things" whose nature we currently seek to discover in our inquiries. Both Lipari and Bertau go a long way towards describing the nature of this "something else."

The ghost of the machine: The relevance of material systems for psychology

“…Some contemporary trends in social constructionism (Shotter, 2014) and discursive psychology (Durrheim & Dixon, 2005) gesture towards a re-embedding of inquiry in lived bodily experience. Yet these perspectives neglect a very important sense in which the body is not only historically situated but technological (cf.…”

Introduction: The self within the space–time of language performance

“…To this end, Lysaker presents a case example of a dialogical picture-book reading as precursor to solitary and silent reading of written words. The final commentary is given by John Shotter (2014) who raises the subject of control that belongs to the self-contained and independent I. Emphasizing that human beings need to see themselves as essentially living within “back-and-forth relations with the others and otherness around” (p. 592) them, Shotter is principally in accordance with Lipari and Bertau.…”