TY - JOUR

T1 - Humans, Materiality and Society

T2 - The Contemporary Sociological Relevance of Helmuth Plessner

AU - Henkel, Anna

PY - 2019/3/15

Y1 - 2019/3/15

N2 - Plessner’s Stufen des Organischen (Steps of the Organic) questions both the conditions of possibility as well as the consequences of a self-understanding of life. Originally written against the background of urbanisation, industrialisation and colonisation, the strength of Plessner’s work lies in his combination of an analyticalphilosophical conceptualisation, the introduction of materiality and the body as well as his historical–ethical dimension. As a re-sult of this combination, Plessner’s approach is well suited to contribute to the current inter-national discourse on the relationship of sociality and materiality. This article provides an overview of the reception of Plessner in Germany and embeds his approach into current de-bates, discussing its value with regard to the sociality-materiality relationship. The focus is on three issues: the definition of the boundaries of the social, the relationship between the social and the body as well as the cultural historic-ethical situation. Finally, Plessner’s Steps of the Organic are related to the current issues of ecologisation and digitalisation, allowing us to see what a Plessnerian perspective on the materiality-sociality relationship can do with-in applied social theory.

AB - Plessner’s Stufen des Organischen (Steps of the Organic) questions both the conditions of possibility as well as the consequences of a self-understanding of life. Originally written against the background of urbanisation, industrialisation and colonisation, the strength of Plessner’s work lies in his combination of an analyticalphilosophical conceptualisation, the introduction of materiality and the body as well as his historical–ethical dimension. As a re-sult of this combination, Plessner’s approach is well suited to contribute to the current inter-national discourse on the relationship of sociality and materiality. This article provides an overview of the reception of Plessner in Germany and embeds his approach into current de-bates, discussing its value with regard to the sociality-materiality relationship. The focus is on three issues: the definition of the boundaries of the social, the relationship between the social and the body as well as the cultural historic-ethical situation. Finally, Plessner’s Steps of the Organic are related to the current issues of ecologisation and digitalisation, allowing us to see what a Plessnerian perspective on the materiality-sociality relationship can do with-in applied social theory.

KW - Philosophy

KW - Humanism

KW - Philosophical anthropology

KW - society

KW - digitilisation

KW - ecology

KW - technology

KW - materiality

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85065139137&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10746-018-9467-7

DO - 10.1007/s10746-018-9467-7

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 42

SP - 123

EP - 145

JO - Human Studies

JF - Human Studies

SN - 0163-8548

IS - 1

ER -