Phenomenology of international images

Eric Kramer

pp. 249-262

in: Philip Blosser, Eiichi Shimomissé, Lester Embree, Hiroshi Kojima (eds), Japanese and Western phenomenology, Berlin, Springer, 1993

Abstract

This article comprises the first attempt to investigate "international image" phenomenologically. First a review and critique of current social scientific measurement of public opinion is demonstrated to be an essentially different phenomenon from "international image," despite the popular confusion of the two. Then using Husserl's analysis of "certitude," international image is demonstrated to be essentially an expression of the natural attitude towards the "actual." The logocentric aspect of television is explored as a major contributor to the blind faith in international images. Doxic sedimentation consisting in large part of a world consituted of video images is addressed as the source of international images and also of perspectival nationalism.

Cited authors

Husserl Edmund