Social Responsivity as Elementary Human Action

Abstract

The problem of social responsivity as formulated in a new book by Johan Asplund is discussed. Asplund assumes that social responsivity is an elemen tary form of social life implied in social-psychological theories A socially responsive person comes alive in the presence of others, but. when isolated, his lite is without purpose. The concept is illustrated using a number of example, and well-known social-psychological experiments are reinter preted within this conceptual framework Especally interesting is the inter pretation of medical experiments using placebos. where the effect of a placebo is seen as an outcome of the social responsivity of the patient Finally, some theoretical problems arising out of the notion of elementary form' are discussed and the epistemological importance is analysed.