Volume 1, Issue Part 2, 2007
Selected Essays from Asia Part 2
Ping-Keung Lui
Pages 497-515
Social Structure as Otherness
The idea of the Other is mainly a phenomenological invention. Its significance in ontology, ethics, and political philosophy has come to be recognized generally. In theoretical sociology, such recognition is yet to be established. As a first attempt, the paper treats social structure as an otherness. Bayesian duality and Simmelian formalism will be invoked in the course of argument. It is hoped that the sociological demand for technicalities does not suffocate an appreciation of its phenomenological comportment.