The Philosophical Roots of Loneliness and Intimacy : Political Narcissism and the Problem of Evil

Ben Lazare Mijuskovic has spent 40 years researching theories of consciousness in relation to human loneliness, using an interdisciplinary and "history of ideas" approach. In this book, Mijuskovic combines Kant's theory of reflexive self-consciousness with Husserl's transcendent principle of intentionality to describe the distinctive philosophical, psychological, and sociological roots of loneliness and intimacy. He argues that loneliness is innate, unavoidable, and constituted by the structure of self-consciousness itself. Ben Lazare Mijuskovic was associate professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills, USA, prior to retirement. He is also a licensed clinical therapist and has worked for many years with the San Diego and Los Angeles Departments of Mental Health Contents 6 About the Author 7 Chapter 1: Time-Consciousness, Personal Identity, and Loneliness 9 Leibniz on Monadic Time-Consciousness 10 Kant on Transcendental Time-Consciousness 14 Peirce and the Mediacy of Time-Consciousness 16 Bergson and Duration 18 Husserl and Internal Time-Consciousness 23 Summary 47 Bibliography 48 Chapter 2: Consciousness Versus Language: Wittgenstein and Russell 52 Bibliography 70 Chapter 3: Loneliness and the Possibility of a “Private Language” 72 Bibliography 87 Chapter 4: Organic Communities, Atomistic Societies, and Loneliness 88 Concluding Personal Note 128 Bibliography 130 Chapter 5: Ethical Responsibility, Spontaneity, and the Problem of Evil 132 How It All Began 132 Freedom and Evil 139 The History of Ideas Approach 153 Conclusion 159 Bibliography 159 Chapter 6: Ethical Principles, Criteria, and the Meaning of Human Values 162 Ethical Principles and Criteria 166 Qualitative Values and Scientific Quantities 180 Concluding Remarks 181 Bibliography 181 Chapter 7: Loneliness and Political Narcissism 183 Loneliness and the Dynamics of Narcissism 187 The Two World Wars 193 A Case Study of Political Narcissism 204 Conclusion 206 Conclusion 208 Bibliography 209 Index 211