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THE CONCEPT OF ONTOLOGICAL SECURITY: CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Abstract
The paper presents heuristic potential and philosophical interpretation of the concept of “ontological security”, developed in sociology of A. Giddens. This concept is important for understanding gaining security of the individual in risk, liquid and turbulent environment of modern society. Giddens' theory shows how transformations of classical modernity on the way to late modernity (postmodern or radicalized modernity) make social world unpredictable and unstable and change the relationship between time and space, as well as perception of fate, trust, risk, danger and security. However Giddens' concept of ontological security keeps its inherently psychological connotations as dominant. Ontological security is derived from psychological needs based on maintaining routine. Routinisation which provides stability of everyday existence Giddens attributes to traditional society whereas society of a postmodern is distinguished by the lack of sense of security. Nonetheless contemporary society has its own mechanisms of routinizing social life; some of them are pathological in form of consumer «exorcism» (Z. Bauman). Ontological security of the person can be interpreted in philosophical perspective in sense of constituting individual identity (based on awareness of danger and security), which is partly determined by social and cultural factors. Ontological security is the level of existential freedom of individual and safety from destructive and manipulative influences. First, it depends on life strategy able to provide stability to personal existence in turbulent social environment. Second, it depends on value orientations, which give a high degree of Ego integrity in the face of the existential challenges. Third, ontological security depends on the degree of openness of the individual to the transcendent perspective and self-transcendence. The latter implies constant reflection over own Ego and prevents its mosaicity and being absorbed by inauthentic existence.
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