From: Andrew Phelps <phelps@cwnet.com>
To: RadPsyNet-Members@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Fri Jun 24 19:59 -0700
Subject: Re: [RadPsyNet-Members] Trust and Betrayal
On Fri Jun 24 15:23 PDT, Ilo sent:
More on Trust and Betrayal, Dr Jonathan Shay, June 24, 2011,
HERE.The need for trust, Dr. Shay argues, comes from human prehistory. Without claws, wings or other natural weapons, human ancestors survived by watching one another's backs. As a result, Dr. Shay argues, the need for trust is part of human biology. Trust makes us feel safe; feeling safe is good for our mental and physical health.
When Giambattista Vico realized that Descartes' way of creating "scientific method" was flawed social science, he went back to the metaphor of the "giant in the cave" who experienced the "bolt of lightning" same as the "next giant over in the next cave." Their verbal responses led to language and to a trust dynamic.
Have you looked at The New Science (1744)? At modern critical psychologists like John Shotter who recognize this insight into the nature of "social science?" Or even at James Joyce who constructed his Finnegan's Wake around the "commodius vicus" i.e. Vico's handle on phenomenology?
Recently I participated in a book event with Hubert Dreyfus whose new (existential philosophy) volume The Shining Path
HERE engages some of Shay's critical dimensions (like the Iliad/Odyssey). I asked him about Vico, and he recognized the merit of the concern. He indicated he was working "towards that direction."
Andrew Phelps