Four Levels of Interpersonal Reflection

Discussion

Johannes Heinrichs:

There are Four Levels of Interpersonal Reflection:

1. Instrumental action with reference to the other (and handling of the other), e.g. treatment by a doctor or pre-personal business, where the other is only seen in the context of things or money.

2. Strategic action takes into account the actions of the other for one`s own interests.

3. Communicative action responds to the expectations and desires of the other, not just with strategic intent, the track of self-interest (2), but for the other`s own sake; called also "altruistic" (derived from "alter, the other"). This communicative approach does not mean a particular altruistic attitude, but that it is nothing without successful communication. The respective subjective attitudes and acts are elements of communication, which enter into this and are subsequently diverted from this. It is for example possible that a partner wants to stay in communication, and the other does not, or that the current communication ceases. Then only the individual´s more or less "altruistic" or strategic attitudes remain. Successful communication goes beyond any subjective attitudes!

4. Meta-communicative actions or attitudes respond to the requirements and standards of social coexistence; these standards are mutually recognised, partly put into question, in any case, and are more or less regulated anew. The social action was "classically" defined by Max Weber as an “orientation on the actions of others.”

If we think this orientation as practical reflection with the above leveling, the decisive structural constant is revealed: the four levels of social action.

The reflection levels shown above are the predominant components of social action. On the meta-communicative level, the interpersonal relation becomes a social system, dynamic and self-regulating. Systemic thinking means then that the relations are no longer seen from the view-point of the individual actors, but from “above,” from the community as such. And now, we look at the same levels of personal interaction as system-levels of a big community, as that of a state, and find differentiations which we all know – but normally without systemic understanding."

(https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Diamonds_of_Integral_Philosophy)

Source

* Book: Diamonds of Integral Philosophy. An outline of the book “Integral Philosophy”. by Johannes Heinrichs.