Phenomenology of offense

Introduction.Everyone tends to deal with offense sometimes in his/her own life, and understanding of this phenomenon may be classified as an “eternal” philosophical issue. However, the current situation creates conditions for the massiveization of its experiencing and for the new dangerous mindsets, which darken individual and social being. Despite the need for a holistic understanding, in the scientific literature, offenseis studied rather fragmentarily, the definitions appear to be contradictory, reflecting diverse aspects, but not grasping the uniform ground of the phenomenon. Hence an urgent task consists in searching for the offense essential core, which does not depend on concrete manifestations, and, on this basis, in tracing a strategy for overcoming this destructive feeling.

Materials and Methods.Since the aim is to understand the essence of offense as a phenomenon of human being, the existential-phenomenological approach seems to be the most productive for this study. In contrast to the abstract-theoretical and reductionist, this methodology allows analyzing the phenomenon in its entirety and paradoxicality. Also it helps to outline the ways to deal with offense through the analysis of its real manifestations, of its experiencing and understanding by individuals “from within” the concrete situations.

Results. Phenomenological analysis of offense shows that it is a distorted (wrong) vision of the human “I” either byOther(s), or byhim-/herself. Offense is experienced as a painful dissonance between the represented/desired and the real state of affairs, therefore its source may be found entirely in the individual imagination, and its “vector” appears to be ultimately directed towards self-destruction. Even being inflicted from the outside, the offense must pass into the plane of personal representations in order to become such, threatening the integrity of a person’s “worldview”. In this regard, the offense should be opposed to the understanding of “the own” as a unique individual existential ground, unapproachable for the Other. The practice of “accepting” is helpful: to return to the present (real) as it is; to struggle with unproductive fears and desires; to aware of the purpose of the own existence as self-realization.

Discussion and Conclusions.An existential-phenomenological analysis of offense was carried out; life examples were used to highlight its similarities and differences with close phenomena of envy, hatred, resentment, etc.; its ontological grounds and opposite phenomena were studied to trace possible ways to overcome this destructive feeling.

1. Ageeva Z.A., Gricenko M.S. Socio-psychological nature and phenomenology of resentment. Vestnik Ivanovskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Ser.: Estestvennye, obshchestvennye nauki, 2009, vol. 1, pp. 19-23. (In Russ.)

2. Ageeva Z.A., Martynyuk V.G. Specifics of the communicative sphere of a touchy personality. Vestnik Ivanovskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. YUrisprudenciya. Psihologiya. Pedagogika. Sociologiya. Social'naya rabota. ZHurnalistikaireklama. Mezhdunarodnyeotnosheniya,2015, vol. 2, pp. 36-40. (In Russ.)

3. Bakeeva E.V. Ontological Context of the Rating Ideology. Vestnik Gumanitarnogo universite-ta, 2014, no. 3(6), pp. 106-111. (In Russ.)

4. Bel'tyukova A.V. The concept of resentment: the nature of occurrence, features of manifesta-tion. Vestnik Udmurtskogo universiteta. Seriya Filosofiya, psihologiya, pedagogika, 2019, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 262-267, doi: 10.35634/2412-9550-2019-29-3-262-267. (In Russ.)

5. Bibihin V.V. Own. Philosophy of his. St. Petersburg, Nauka Publ., 2012. 536 p. (In Russ.)

6. Bibihin V.V. Energy. Moscow, Institut filosofii, teologii i istorii sv. Fomy Publ., 2010. 488 p. (In Russ.)

7. Bibihin V.V. The language of philosophy. 3rd ed., ster. St. Petersburg, Nauka Publ., 2007. 389 p. (In Russ.)

8. Golikov K.S. Existential truth: about the personal without boundaries. Vestnik Mininskogo un-iversiteta, 2020, vol. 8, no. 4, p. 12. (In Russ.)

9. Dronov P.S., Kovshova M.L. Images of resentment in Russian vocabulary and phraseology. Izvestiya Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo universiteta, 2019, no. 1(134), pp. 188-195. (In Russ.)

10. Zolotuhina-Abolina E.V., Makarenko M.V. Forgiveness and self-forgiveness: the unity of moral and psychological. CHelovek, 2020, vol. 31, no. 5, pp. 111-128, doi: 10.31857/S023620070012392-8. (In Russ.)

11. Kempton B. Wabi Sabi. Japanese secrets of true happiness in an imperfect world. Moscow, Eksmo Publ., 2019. 304 p. (In Russ.)

12. Losev A.F. The most self. Losev A.F. Mif – CHislo – Sushchnost'. Moscow, Mysl' Publ., 1994. Pp. 300-526. (In Russ.)

13. Malinkin A.N. Max Scheler's Doctrine of Resentment and its Significance for Sociology. Soci-ologicheskij zhurnal, 1997, no. 4, pp. 116-150. (In Russ.)

14. Mamardashvili M.K. Aesthetics of thinking. Moscow, Moskovskaya shkola politicheskih issle-dovanij Publ., 2000. 416 p. (In Russ.)

15. Mkrtchyan C.L. Psychological aspects of resentment and forgiveness as a phenomenon of in-terpersonal communication. Vestnik CHelyabinskogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo un-iversiteta, 2013, no. 5, pp. 76-86. (In Russ.)

16. Nicshe F. Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to the Philosophy of the Future; On the Genealogy of Morality: A Polemic Essay. Moscow, Akademicheskij proekt Publ., 2007. 398 p. (In Russ.)

17. Platon. State. Platon. Sochineniya v chetyryoh tomah. Vol. 3. Part 1. St. Petersburg, Publishing House of St. Petersburg. university; Publishing house of Oleg Abyshko, 2007. Pp. 97-493. (In Russ.)

18. Prokof'ev A.V. Justice and Resentment (Marginal Notes on the Genealogy of Morals by F. Nietzsche). Eticheskaya mysl', 2013, no. 13, pp. 175-198. (In Russ.)

19. Savchenko N.A. Resentment: external and internal aspects. Vestnik Taganrogskogo instituta upravleniya i ekonomiki, 2020, no. 1(31), pp. 74-77. (In Russ.)

20. Seneka Lucij Annej. On the steadfastness of a sage, or On the fact that a sage can neither be offended nor offended. Seneka Lucij Annej. Filosofskie traktaty. Izdanie vtoroe. St. Petersburg, Aletejya Publ., 2001. Pp. 66-85. (In Russ.)

21. Skripnik A.P. Indignation and intolerance. Eticheskaya mysl', 2019, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 89-103, doi: 10.21146/2074-4870-2019-19-1-89-103. (In Russ.)

22. Caryova E.S. Resentment as a form of response to manifestations of aggressiveness in commu-nication. Vestnik Bryanskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 2015, no. 2, pp. 126-130. (In Russ.)

23. Cunetomo YA. Hagakure. Busido. Voennyj kanon samuraya s kommentariyami. Moscow, AST Publ., 2018. Pp. 69-233. (In Russ.)

24. SHeler M. Resentment in the structure of morals. St. Petersburg, Nauka Publ., Universitetskaya kniga Publ., 1999. 231 p. (In Russ.)

25. SHutaleva A.V. Constitutiveness of phenomenological contemplation. Diskurs-Pi, 2019, no. 1(34), pp. 29-36, doi 10.17506/dipi.2019.34.1.2936. (In Russ.)

26. Etymological online dictionary of the Russian language / ed. N.M. Shansky (Article "Indig-nant"). Available at: https://lexicography.online/etymology/shansky/n/indignant (accessed: 30.05.2021). (In Russ.)

27. Aeschbach S. Ressentiment: an anatomy. Thèse de doctorat. Université de Genève, 2017. 909 p.

28. Balcomb A.Resentment – excavating a resurgent phenomenon in contemporary society. Scriptura, 2021, vol. 120, no. 1, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7833/120-1-1839.

29. Belmonte M.Á. Phenomenology of resentment according to Scheler and Girard in light of sloth in Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae. Scientia et Fides, 2020, vol. 8(1), pp. 221-242, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.12775/SetF.2020.002.

30. Biricheva E.V. The Nature of Conflict: Ontological Paradox and Existential Effort of Acceptance. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Philosophy and Conflict Studies, 2019, vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 607-625, doi: 10.21638/spbu17.2019.407.

31. Carlsson U. Tragedy and Resentment. Mind, 2018, vol. 127, no. 508, pp. 1169-1191, doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/fzx014.

32. Colombetti E. Resentment in Ethics and the Ethics of Resentment. Supplement to Acta Philosophica. Forum, 2020, vol. 6, pp. 37-63, doi: https://doi.org/10.17421/2498-9746-06-03.

33. Drummond J.J. Anger and Indignation. John J. Drummond & Sonja Rinofner-Kreidl (eds.), Emotional Experiences: Ethical and Social Significance. London and New York, Rowman & Littlefield, 2017. Pp. 15-30.

34. Fassin D. On Resentment and Ressentiment. The Politics and Ethics of Moral Emotions. Current Anthropology, 2013, vol. 54, no. 3, pp. 249-267.

35. MacLachlan A. Unreasonable Resentments. Journal of Social Philosophy, 2010, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 422-441.

36. Llewelyn J.E. Rancor Against Time: The Phenomenology of Resentment, by Richard Ira Sugarman. Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, 1982, vol. 13(2), pp. 203-206, doi: 10.1080/00071773.1982.11007584.

37. Rosas A. Sympathy and Resentment. Filosofia Unisinos – Unisinos Journal of Philosophy, 2016, vol. 17(2), pp. 144-148.

38. Schwarze M. Coping with Resentment: Spectatorial Resentment And Spontaneous Disorder In Smith. Recognizing Resentment: Sympathy, Injustice, and Liberal Political Thought. Cambridge University Press, 2020. Pp. 98-128.