Session 7b: Otherness and Strangeness
Chair: Bryan R. Weaver

Eros and the Lure of the Other: Love on the Line
Adam Briggle
University of Twente, The Netherlands

Though an increasing number of computer-mediated romantic relationships are being formed, Aaron Ben-Zeèv notes that “online relationships cannot overcome the desire for physical closeness” (2004, p. 54). Why can love not be sustained in cyberspace? This paper answers this central question drawing from work in the philosophy of technology and the philosophy of love. The central question does not have an obvious answer. Indeed, cyber-love can be described as a “Platonic postmodernist” type of love that seems ideally suited to the consumer culture’s emphasis on freedom and self-expression. Thus, in order to explain the shortcomings of this account of love, the paper looks at the Western tradition of thought about eros. This serves two purposes. First, it explains romantic love as an “immanent transcendence,” in which the relationship itself serves as the source of meaning and fulfillment. Second, it explains how the “other” in a relationship must have a certain “weightiness” in order for romantic love to thrive and sustain. The next section argues that computer-mediation is a non-neutral technique that filters out this essential weight of the other. It does so by fleshing out the concept of weight in terms of three defining qualities of love: (a) the “thrill of the other,” which speaks to the importance of affection, touch, and embodiment; (b) the “continuity of the other,” which speaks to the meaning of shared experiences; and (c) the “commanding presence of the other,” which speaks to commitment and the limitations of willing. This paper aspires to refine our understanding of the nature of love in a world in which personal relationships are increasingly mediated by information technologies.

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Exploring Strangeness in the Plurality of Teacher-Student Relationship
Momoyo Mitsuno
School of Political Science, Criminology and Sociology, University of Melbourne, Australia

In a close relationship with students, school teachers are exposed to the reflexivity of those who work for others, which makes them vulnerable as a worker and as a person as they have to encounter a new reality of teaching constantly. This experience is not well explained by “Otherness”, which only represents and rests on established and reproduced patters of social relationship.
The paper explores Strangeness that teachers experience in the teacher-student relationship. It particularly focuses on the case of teacher-student love in Japanese schools, which are going through so called “educational crisis” and educational reforms. In pedagogy, love is regarded as a positive force for teaching and learning. While affective dimension is crucial to build the relationship of trust between a teacher and a student, there is a contradictory character of love in the teacher-student relationship. Recent reports on the increasing number of sexual harassment cases by teachers in Japan are an example. While the notion of “Otherness” keeps teacher-student interactions normal and in order, the physical involvement in teacher-student love makes the taxonomy of school interactions cease to function.
The paper aims to capture the subjective experiences of teacher-student relationship in such a diversified and personalised space in education. It pays attention to teachers’ private writings shown in public space, that is, blogs written by those who claim to be a teacher, as a way to explore teachers’ reflexivity. These blog writings express the strangeness between the role of a teacher, writers’ experience of being a teacher, and their self-knowledge. The paper argues Strangeness as an emerging way of making a relationship with others and with oneself.

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