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Ernst E. Boesch’s Ontologic Predication in Focus

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Abstract

This paper aims to explain and discuss some aspects of Ernst E. Boesch’s Symbolic Action Theory that predicates the subject beyond the instrumentality of his action, inaugurating a cultural psychology that touches to the hermeneutic psychology of facticity.

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Notes

  1. A complete explanation of his theory appears in Boesch (1991). For complementary discussions, see also the special issue of Culture & Psychology (1997); also Cornejo (2007); Simão (2001, 2008).

  2. It is worth noting that this touches to the relationship between universal and particular also in idiographic terms. In this respect, see, for instance, Cornejo (2011); Lamiell (1998); Windelband (1894).

  3. This aspect keeps similarities, but also differences, with Branco and Valsiner’s (1999) proposal of methodology as a cyclic process.

  4. As pointed by Boesch (1991), “praxic” is distinguished here from “practical”. “Practical” is an action which furthers the attainment of a goal; the term implies an evaluative aspect, while “praxic”, being merely a descriptive term, simply means “overtly performed” (p. 96).

  5. These aspects were more elaborated in Simão (2012, 2016) based on Herbst (1995).

  6. See Boesch (1992).

  7. For a detailed explanation about these dimensions, see Boesch (1991).

  8. The original text in French is: “(...) le “soi” est. l’effet d’une structuration partant de les données de l’expérience immédiate de l’action (Boesch 1980, p. 23).

  9. The original text in French is: “L’aspect constructioniste et biologique se tenant de prés, je propose de les considérer ensemble sous le terme de laction. L’aspect culturel, se son coté, sera traité sous le terme de lobjet, ce qui permettra de limiter le vaste problème des relations écologique à un domaine plus restreint. Il va de soit que les deux domaines, action et objet, ne peuvent être séparés qu’artificiellement: toute actions a un objet (ne serait qu’imaginaire), et tout objet se définit par sa valeur actionnelle. Cependant, les deux termes sont distingués dans le vécue subjectif : on croit savoir clairement ce qui est interne (« nous-mêmes ») ou externes (« objets ») (Boesch 1980, pp. 23–24).

  10. Here the concepts of barriers, frontiers, limits and zones of tolerance and taboo zones are at play (Boesch 1991).

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Correspondence to Lívia Mathias Simão.

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Simão, L.M. Ernst E. Boesch’s Ontologic Predication in Focus. Integr. psych. behav. 50, 568–585 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-016-9354-6

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