Abstract
Many who speak glowingly about the possibilities for human relations in cyberspace, or virtual communities, laud them precisely because such communities are to a great extent free of the real spatial-temporal restrictions rooted in the limitations of our bodies. In this paper I investigate the importance of the body in establishing and maintaining human relations by considering the thought of the twentieth century French philosopher Gabriel Marcel. Because Marcel emphasized the central importance of the body in one's personal self-identity as well as in initiating and maintaining intersubjective bonds in human communities, he is able to offer some interesting reflections on the character of virtual communities. I suggest that a number of the features of cyberspace and its communities that make it attractive to many are precisely the characteristics that Marcel would consider detrimental to establishing intimate lasting human communities. I conclude by indicating why I think that Marcel would be concerned that certain trends in our high tech culture may well lead many to prefer ``living'' in virtual, rather than real communities.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Albert Borgmann. Crossing the Postmodern Divide. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1992.
Albert Borgmann. Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1987.
Danny Goodman. Living at Light Speed. Random House, New York, 1994.
Harris Breslow, “Civil Society, Political Economy and the Internet.” In Steven Jones, editor, Virtual Culture, Chapter 11. London: Sage Publications, 1997.
Jan Fernback, “The Individual within the Collective.” In Steven Jones, editor, Virtual Culture, Chapter 2. Sage Publications, London, 1997.
Steven Jones, “The Internet and its Social Landscape.” In Steven Jones, editor, Virtual Culture, Chapter 1. Sage Publications, London, 1997.
Gabriel Marcel. Being and Having. Translated by Katherine Farrer. Harper, New York, 1965.
Gabriel Marcel. Creative Fidelity. Translated by Robert Rosthal. Farrer, Straus and Company, New York, 1964.
Gabriel Marcel. Man Against Mass Society. Translated by G.S. Fraser. Regnery Company, Chicago, 1962.
Gabriel Marcel. Metaphysical Journal. Translated by Bernard Wall. Regnery Company, Chicago, 1952.
Gabriel Marcel. The Mystery of Being. Translated by G.S. Fraser. Regnery Company, Chicago, 1950.
Ananda Mitra, “Virtual Commonality.” In Steven Jones, editor, Virtual Culture, Chapter 3. Sage Publications, London, 1997.
Mark Poster. The Mode of Information. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1990.
Neil Postman. Technopoly: The surrender of culture to technology. Vintage Books, New York, 1993.
Howard Rheingold. The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, MA, 1993.
Theodore Roszak. The Cult of Information. University of California Press, Los Angeles, 1994.
Lorenzo Simpson, Technology, Time and the Conversations of Modernity. Routledge, New York, 1995.
Nicole Stenger, “Mind is a Leaking Rainbow.” In Michael Benedikt, editor, Cyberspace: First Steps. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1992.
Cliff Stoll. Silicon Snake Oil. Doubleday, New York, 1995.
Sherry Turkle. Life on the Screen. Simon & Schuster, New York, 1995.
Nessin Watson. “Why We Argue about Virtual Community.” In Steven Jones, editor, Virtual Culture, Chapter 5. Sage Publications, London, 1997.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Anderson, T.C. The body and communities in cyberspace: A Mmarcellian analysis. Ethics and Information Technology 2, 153–158 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010001504963
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010001504963