Forming a Global Community

by Joseph De Rivera, Harry A Carson (Contribution by)

Overview

To address global problems such as pandemics, warming, economic inequality, mass migration, and widespread terrorism, Joseph de Rivera argues that we must form a global community. A community of eight billion humans is difficult to conceive. However, it can be imagined and created if we transform our understanding of who humans are and what 'community' entails. We can understand who persons are, how they are motivated, and how a community can be conceived in a way that offers an alternative to individualism and collectivism. The "mutualism" that is proposed provides a moral compass for navigating the challenges that confront us and encourages specific governing structures, political economies, and rituals that will further the formation of a global community.

Based on the philosophical analysis of John Macmurray, the author's argument relies on an extensive review of the current literature on self, personhood, emotional motivation, social identity, forms of community, and religious and secular rituals. Interdisciplinary in nature, it aims to direct philosophy and the social sciences to the challenges of globalism and the creation of a global community.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781648896156
Publisher:	Vernon Press
Publication date:	01/16/2023
Series:	Philosophy
Pages:	258
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.54(d)

About the Author

Joseph de Rivera (PhD. Stanford, 1961) is Professor Emeritus at Clark University. A founding member of the International Society for Research on Emotions and a fellow in three different divisions of the American Psychological Association, he taught at Dartmouth and NYU before coming to Clark and founding their Program in Peace and Conflict. The author or editor of six previous books, he is currently engaged in research on celebrations that promote global community.

Harry A. Carson is a retired Professor of Philosophy and Dean of Humanities and Contemporary CultureStudies at Sacred Heart College (Detroit, MI). A founding member of the International John Macmurray Society, he authored the Introduction to the 2004 edition of John Macmurray's 'Freedom in the Modern World'.

Editorial Reviews

de Rivera has written a scholarly book that is both important and hopeful. It is based on the premise that we humans are arguably the most social of all social animals-for better and for worse. Yet, the great majority of us tend to think of ourselves as individual conscious beings. The author argues that this assumption is a fundamental mistake-with tragic consequences. According to the author, the most fundamental social motives are caring for others, fear for ourselves, and an aggressive insistence on what ought to exist. These motives are present in all of our interactions, and at any moment, the most essential fact is whether the love for others or fear for the safety of the self is dominant. When love is dominant, persons are authentic, assertive, and able to have open mutual relationships. When fear is dominant, it is managed by submissive conformity or aggressive dominance-preventing persons from fully being themselves. It also motivates them to reduce cognitive dissonance in irrational, self-serving ways that are destructive to trust and intimacy. The alternative lies in the unification that occurs in societies where caring for others dominates fear for the self and enables aggression to intend justice rather than violence. Such societies are communities and have rituals that express the joy of being together rather than the thrill of dominating. In a brilliant, original manner, de Rivera utilizes material from philosophy, psychology, economics, sociology, anthropology, and religion to show how such a community is possible.

[...] Anyone searching for solutions to our current problems will be interested.

Elliot Aronson

Professor Emeritus, Psychology Department

UC Santa Cruz

Have you ever wondered about what is wrong with the world you live in: the deteriorating climate, the politics, your neighbors, inflation, racism, depression? You must have thought, at times, what can be done about it, them? Are we ever going to solve the obvious and simple, much less, the potentially disastrous problems that we face? Maybe unfair, silly questions, but have you?

[...]

To be sure, the range of issues and enormously ambitious scope of this effort to solve our world-level problems, whatever negative responses, or lingering doubts, must be accompanied by enormous respect and admiration for the authors' obviously wise and thoughtful scholarship.

They will take you through several similar difficult but intriguing and promising fundamental conceptual issues. Have you thought, for instance, of what a person versus self or identity could mean? Or the importance of "mutual relationships," and the central concept of the "Other" and "Otherness" in human relations? How are the emotions and experiences that appear in infancy and childhood related to what appears among adults? Is it possible for a religion to be "rational" and sacred? Is it possible, maybe necessary, for the mutually supportive and caring relationships that often appear in small close communities to be extended and organized into a global community?

The authors provide creative and thoughtful answers to those and many similarly intriguing issues in describing how and why we need to create a global community.

Dr. Melvin J Lerner

Social Psychologist

Florida Atlantic University

From the Publisher