SUNY series in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences – serie

The author develops a phenomenological theory of the social structure of immediate experience. At the heart of this study is a theory of habitual sensitivity that originates in the writings of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and John Dewey. The author develops this theory as an alternative to Schutz's theory of taken-for-granted knowledge, which has had a pervasive influence on how phenomenology has been understood and applied within sociology. Each chapter expands on Ostrow's claim that the world is inherently social, by virtue of the sensitivity that immerses us within it before it ever becomes an object of reflection.

Beginning with "value" and "commodity" at the start of Volume I in Marx's major work, and progressing step-by-step to the end of Volume III, Smith establishes in detail that Capital is a systematic theory of socio-economic categories ordered according to dialectical logic. At each stage in his analysis of the theory Smith makes Marx's arguments more accessible. He also considers in depth the objections to Marx's employment of dialectical logic that have been formulated by Hegelians (especially those presented in Klaus Hartmann's Die Marxsche Theorie). Smith presents a persuasive case against this whole range of Marx criticisms, many of which have also been proposed from non-Hegelian standpoints.

Beginning with "value" and "commodity" at the start of Volume I in Marx's major work, and progressing step-by-step to the end of Volume III, Smith establishes in detail that Capital is a systematic theory of socio-economic categories ordered according to dialectical logic. At each stage in his analysis of the theory Smith makes Marx's arguments more accessible. He also considers in depth the objections to Marx's employment of dialectical logic that have been formulated by Hegelians (especially those presented in Klaus Hartmann's Die Marxsche Theorie). Smith presents a persuasive case against this whole range of Marx criticisms, many of which have also been proposed from non-Hegelian standpoints.

This book reflects on the meaning of contemporary life in the light of diverse social reactions to AIDS. Drawing on personal interviews with gay men in Montreal, newspaper reports, government action, historical parallels, and other social facts, the author shows what the AIDS phenomenon can reveal about the nature of current reality. Intimate dimensions of experience are explored in order to understand the medical definition of human life, the 'post-modern' character of the contemporary period, and the pervasive influence of technique. The social analysis of AIDS is interwoven with personal, literary, and philosophical reflections that rebound onto the terrain of intimacy, allowing us to see what a critical reading of AIDS as a social phenomenon tells us about the elemental dramas of existence - of love, pain, death, and sex.Represented here is one man's stock-taking of his generation's experience, exploring the social futures that different reactions to AIDS hold out to us. In the tradition of critical thought, the book is a contribution to the understanding which rescues life from the absurd.

This book brings together some of the finest recent critical and expository work on Mead, written by American and European thinkers from diverse traditions. For English-speaking audiences it provides an introduction to recent European work on Mead. The essays reveal the richness of Mead's thought, and will stimulate those who have thought about him from very specific vantage points (behaviorism, symbolic interactionism, pragmatism, etc.) to consider him in new ways.

This book focuses on the most powerful agency of value formation in our time - the video image as purveyed through television and mass media. Special attention is given to the impact of television on education and the challenges of instructing a generation of children who have never know a time BT, that is, "before television."Both the negative and the positive implications and consequences of video technology are discussed in the book by a range of experts in the humanities and social sciences. Among the prominent issues and questions: How does television function as an agent of value formation? What is the impact of conventional, commercial format on values and critical judgment? What is a video text and how is it different from a convention text? How do we develop the instructional tools to teach people to be critical viewers? What is television's place in the arts and what is a video artist? What happens to consciousness after viewing 30,000 or more hours of television by the time an individual graduates from high school? Is the growing problem of aliteracy directly attributable to television?The social and moral implications of television during its "second 50 years" will be profound and far-reaching. The authors of Video Icons and Values provide valuable clues as to what these implications are, will be, and what can be done about them.

This book provides an understanding of the content and aims of Habermas's critical theory of society - the theory that analyzes the causes of our cultural lack of direction, polical apathy, and the increasing complexity of modern society. The author offers a foothold on the current debates regarding the credibility and cogency of the theory. Braaten presents Habermas's defense of his critique of reason in his most recent work concerning the confrontation between postmodernists and neoconservatives, and modernists and liberal theorists. She also explores the possibility of applying Habermas's critical resources in the United States in ways that he himself may not have considered.

Here we have, for the first time in a single volume, diverse perspectives on the meaning, conditions, and goals of critical reasoning in contemporary culture. Part One emphasizes critical reasoning and education, engaging the debate over the connection between critical reasoning skills and the learning of the content.Part Two offers analyses of the theoretical, methodological, and historical debates concerning critical reasoning abilities. The authors represent a variety of disciplines and theoretical approaches which lend the book valuable intellectual pluralism.The book evaluates other aspects of critical thinking such as creativity, insight, questioning, learning, practical thought, interpretation, intellectual prejudice, and the historical and temporary aspects of thought.

Reveals its hidden nihilistic assumptions and proposes a richer vision of human thought grounded in lived experience and "transfigurative rationality."In an age increasingly defined by technocratic thinking and mechanistic models of the mind, Psychology and Nihilism challenges the very foundations of modern cognitive psychology. Drawing deeply on Nietzsche’s concept of the "last man" and the pervasive influence of nihilism, Fred Evans argues that contemporary psychology rests on hidden assumptions it cannot escape—among them, tacit understanding, lived experience, and our embeddedness in a meaningful world.Through a powerful synthesis of philosophy and psychological theory, Evans reveals how dominant models of cognition—rooted in computation, abstraction, and control—risk reducing human beings to lifeless systems, stripped of creativity, ambiguity, and depth. Yet this is not merely a critique. Evans advances a bold alternative: a vision of "transfigurative rationality," one that transcends narrow technocratic limits and reclaims the richness of human thought, language, and perception.Engaging with figures across philosophy, literature, and social theory, Psychology and Nihilism bridges the divide between psychology and philosophy, exposing the philosophical stakes hidden within scientific claims about the mind. It invites readers to reconsider what it means to think, to speak, and ultimately, to be human.Ambitious, incisive, and deeply original, this book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand—and move beyond—the intellectual currents shaping our modern conception of the self.

Henderson examines the foundations of an analytic social science approach to develop a well-integrated account of the human sciences, focusing on the pivotal notions of interpretation and explanation. The author acknowledges the importance of interpretive understanding in the human sciences, and proposes a methodology that reflects both interpretive practice as well as scientific methodology. He refutes the methodological separatists who hold that the logic of explanation and testing in the human sciences is fundamentally different from that of the natural sciences, and examines in detail the constraints on interpretation. In providing an integrated treatment of these two central issues in social science, Henderson offers a thorough analysis of the adequacy of interpretation and the nature of explanation in the human sciences.

In this book Christopher Pines demonstrates that Karl Marx conceived of ideology as false consciousness. He shows how the different meanings of false consciousness found in the writings of Marx and Engels reflect the influence of the views of the Baconian-French Enlightenment and of Hegelian Feuerbachian philosophies. Pines argues that, for Marx, the diverse senses of false consciousness all generally denote a social consciousness that takes certain false things to be true regarding matters of significance to class-divided societies.

Critique, Action, and Liberation is an original work in critical social theory that develops an approach to and method for social and political science. Drawing on the work of Habermas, Marcuse, Adorno, Offe, Marx, and David Harvey, Marsh develops an ethics and a social phenomenology of the self as communicative subject. He then advances an interpretation and critique of modernity, late capitalism, and state socialism.

This book focuses on what pragmatism tells us about the nature and function of communication. Its goals are to recover a singular voice of pragmatism, and to identify and develop alternative methods and aims for the philosophy of communication. It shows how pragmatism assumes and proposes a philosophy of communication that can lead to a reconceptualization of contemporary communication studies.The authors explore recurrent themes in the tradition's various classical extensions that commend pragmatism as a methodology for social change and human development. They show that pragmatism fosters inquiry and pluralism by rejecting strategies for closure, questioning prevailing metanarratives, and encouraging the development of new habits of conduct through a critical practice that is fundamentally self-reflective.Contributors to this volume include Mitchell Aboulafia, Thomas Alexander, Arthur Bochner and Joanne Waugh, Isaac Catt, Vincent Colapietro, Janet Horne, Richard Lanigan, Frank Macke, Mick Presnell, Charlene Haddock Seigfried, and Leonard Shyles.

An exploration of modernism and postmodernism in regard to knowledge: methods of inquiry, operations of the mind, the role of values, conceptions of self, and the problematic of reasonThis book explores issues of modernism and postmodernism in relation to knowledge: methods of inquiry, operations of the mind, the role of values, conceptions of self, and the problematic of reason.Among the distinguished contributors are Michael Arbib, Aaron Ben-Zeev, Helen Couclelis, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Jane Flax, George E. Marcus, Donald McCloskey, Donald Schon, Barbara Herrnstein Smith, and Charles Taylor.

An exploration of modernism and postmodernism in regard to knowledge: methods of inquiry, operations of the mind, the role of values, conceptions of self, and the problematic of reasonThis book explores issues of modernism and postmodernism in relation to knowledge: methods of inquiry, operations of the mind, the role of values, conceptions of self, and the problematic of reason.Among the distinguished contributors are Michael Arbib, Aaron Ben-Zeev, Helen Couclelis, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Jane Flax, George E. Marcus, Donald McCloskey, Donald Schon, Barbara Herrnstein Smith, and Charles Taylor.

Develops a critique of utopianism through a comparison of the works of Karl Marx and F. A. Hayek, challenging conventional views of both Marxian and Hayekian thought.This book develops a critique of utopianism through a provocative comparison of the works of Karl Marx and F. A. Hayek, thus engaging two vastly different traditions in critical dialogue. By emphasizing the methodological and substantive similarities between Marxian and Hayekian perspectives, it challenges each tradition's most precious assumptions about the other. Through this comparative analysis, the book articulates the crucial distinctions between utopian and radical theorizing.Sciabarra examines the dialectical method of social inquiry common to both Marxian and Hayekian thought and argues that both Marx and Hayek rejected utopian theorizing because it internalizes an abstract, ahistorical, exaggerated sense of human possibility. The chief disagreement between Marx and Hayek, he shows, is not political but epistemological, reflecting their differing assumptions about the limits of reason.

Develops a critique of utopianism through a comparison of the works of Karl Marx and F. A. Hayek, challenging conventional views of both Marxian and Hayekian thought.This book develops a critique of utopianism through a provocative comparison of the works of Karl Marx and F. A. Hayek, thus engaging two vastly different traditions in critical dialogue. By emphasizing the methodological and substantive similarities between Marxian and Hayekian perspectives, it challenges each tradition's most precious assumptions about the other. Through this comparative analysis, the book articulates the crucial distinctions between utopian and radical theorizing.Sciabarra examines the dialectical method of social inquiry common to both Marxian and Hayekian thought and argues that both Marx and Hayek rejected utopian theorizing because it internalizes an abstract, ahistorical, exaggerated sense of human possibility. The chief disagreement between Marx and Hayek, he shows, is not political but epistemological, reflecting their differing assumptions about the limits of reason.

Presents three generations of German, French, and Anglo-American thinking on the Hegelian narrative of desire, recognition, and alienation in life, labor, and language.This book presents three generations of German, French, and Anglo-American thinking on the Hegelian narrative of desire, recognition, and alienation in life, labor, and language-a narrative that has been subject to extensive commentary in philosophy, literature, psychoanalysis, and feminist thought. The texts focus on a central topos in Western thought, the story of self-consciousness awakened in nature and in history. John O'Neill argues that current postmodern rejections of the Hegelian-Marxist narrative demand an understanding of the texts included here. Without Hegel and Marx in our toolbox, he argues, we will flounder in a world marked by the split between postmodern indifference and premodern passion.The book makes a strong selection from the history of Hegelian-Marxist debate, hermeneutical and critical theory, and Freudian/Lacanian and feminist commentary on the dialectic of desire and recognition, on the levels of social psychology and political economy. Included are articles by Karl Marx, G. W. F. Hegel, Alexandre Kojève, Jean Hyppolite, Jean-Paul Sarte, Georg Lukács, Jürgen Habermas, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Howard Adelman, Shlomo Avineri, Jessica Benjamin, Edward S. Casey and J. Melvin Woody, Henry S. Harris, George Armstrong Kelly, Ludwig Siep, Judith N. Shklar, and Henry Sussman. The texts and commentaries show how the Hegelian-Maxist narrative of desire, recognition, and alienation is a contested story, one in which class, race, and gender issues are drawn into a historical romance that is being rewritten in contemporary cultural politics.

Analyzes the theories of myth of Cassirer, Barthes, Eliade, and Hillman and offers an alternative original account of myth-making as an essential strand of cultural production.In this book, Elizabeth M. Baeten analyzes the theories of myth propounded by Cassirer, Barthes, Eliade, and Hillman and juxtaposes the insights of these very different perspectives to form a coherent account of myth. She then shows that these theories perform the same function the authors ascribe to myth itself. Moreover, not only do the theories of myth function mythically; the myth embedded in each theory is the same: the telos of human existence is absolute freedom, an unbounded power to constitute the subjective and objective features of existence. The correlate of this myth of absolute creative freedom, Baeten argues, is that the truly human must transcend natural determinations. Baeten understands this to be a dangerous myth and offers an alternative original account of myth-making as an essential strand of cultural production demarcating the human process within the setting of broader natural processes.

Analyzes the theories of myth of Cassirer, Barthes, Eliade, and Hillman and offers an alternative original account of myth-making as an essential strand of cultural production.In this book, Elizabeth M. Baeten analyzes the theories of myth propounded by Cassirer, Barthes, Eliade, and Hillman and juxtaposes the insights of these very different perspectives to form a coherent account of myth. She then shows that these theories perform the same function the authors ascribe to myth itself. Moreover, not only do the theories of myth function mythically; the myth embedded in each theory is the same: the telos of human existence is absolute freedom, an unbounded power to constitute the subjective and objective features of existence. The correlate of this myth of absolute creative freedom, Baeten argues, is that the truly human must transcend natural determinations. Baeten understands this to be a dangerous myth and offers an alternative original account of myth-making as an essential strand of cultural production demarcating the human process within the setting of broader natural processes.

Using the insights of evolutionary epistemology, the author develops a new naturalist realist methodology of science, and applies it to the conceptual, practical, and ethical problems of the social sciences.With postmodernism and postructuralism sweeping the social sciences and humanities, a whole generation of students from disciplines as diverse as history, English literature, philosophy, sociology, and anthropology are learning that "truth" is bogus—a tired old liberal humanist fiction. Language is incapable of telling the truth, and science, nothing but a socially constructed discourse, functions to maintain the status quo. There is much to be said for this point of view, but ironically, relativists face precisely the same quandary, for if all claims to knowledge are equally valid, then de facto the knowledge claims of the most powerful are the ones disseminated and acted upon. This timely book offers a way out of the current realist/relativist impasse. Azevedo uses the insights of evolutionary epistemology to develop a naturalist realist methodology of science, the "mapping model of knowledge," and applies it to solving the conceptual, practical, and ethical problems faced by sociology as a discipline. The model is developed from the practice of the natural sciences, and comes with an easily applied and powerful heuristic based on mapping, filling the gap left by the downfall of positivist and empiricist methodologies. It shows the inescapably social nature of science, but argues that scientific theories can in fact be validated in perspective-neutral ways —not despite the social and interest-driven nature of science, but because of it.

This multidisciplinary volume documents the resurrection of the importance of narrative to the study of individuals and groups and argues that narrative may become a lingua franca of future debates in the human sciences.This anthology documents the resurrection, in the last few decades, of the importance of narrative to the study of individuals and groups. The editors propose that the human sciences are undergoing a paradigm shift away from nomological models and toward a more humanistic language in which narrative plays a complex and controversial role. Narratives, they claim, help to make experience intelligible, to crystallize personal identity, and to constitute and nurture community.The fifteen articles in this collection, organized into sections dealing with memory, identity, and community, are by noted scholars representing a wide variety of disciplines, including philosophy, history, religion, communication, environmental studies, political science, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and law. They advocate diverse political and ideological positions, supporting the editors' belief that because narrative has not been captured by any academic bloc, it has the potential to become a lingua franca of future debates in the human sciences.

Argues that rebuilding ethical communities will require a cultural reorientation from visually dominated to oral/aural experience and develops a speech-based conception of moral place that can set limits on the actions of individuals and communities.Recently, political theorists, philosophers, and theologians have given considerable attention to the role of narrative both in the formation and maintenance of political communities and in moral reasoning. Speech and Political Practice examines a central question for narrative-based theories of community and ethics: How can we tell a good story from a bad one? That is, how can narrative models of community escape moral relativism? It argues that a good, or morally acceptable, narrative provides the members of the community derived from it with a sense of place that can allow individuals to understand their own identity and its relation to others. Such a sense of place can establish limits on individual action and on what a community may demand of individuals, as well as on a community's action toward other communities.Speech and Political Practice develops a dynamic and egalitarian conception of place based on the human capacity for speech. It argues that places of responsibility can be derived from the structures of various types of speech act, and that such places of responsibility can establish limits on individual and collective action without abandoning legitimate modern achievements such as democracy and science. Drawing upon recent philosophy of language and science and upon anthropological studies of oral, literate, and electronic-image cultures, Jardine concludes that practical development of speech-based places will require that we reorient ourselves from visual modes of experience toward oral/aural experience. He discusses what this would imply for a revival of public life.

Interweaves elements of Kristevan and Heideggerian thought in order to reconstruct a linguistically embedded, existentially and affectively rich, dialectical model of willed self-regulation.Ecstatic Subjects, Utopia, and Recognition is a study in critical postmodern social theory. By engaging a dialogue with Heidegger, Kristeva, and Irigaray, it offers unique insights into Heidegger's heroic embrace of the manly ethos of National Socialism. Against certain poststructuralist feminist tendencies to throw the baby of intentionality out with the bath water of voluntarism, Huntington interweaves elements of Kristevan and Heideggerian thought in order to reconstruct a linguistically embedded, existentially and affectively rich, dialectical model of willed self-regulation. Pressing Heideggerian ontology into the service of a viable social theory, she argues that this ontology accounts for the utopian impulse in Irigaray's search for a critical poetic reenchantment of the lifeworld and supplies Irigaray with the philosophical foundation for a model of ethical recognition based upon asymmetrical reciprocity.

A critique of Rorty's own provocative political philosophy, as well as an in-depth look at both the issues concerning the relationship between the public and the private, and arguments on the role of reason in liberal political discourse generally.In 1989, with the publication of Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity, and in articles throughout the 1990s, Richard Rorty developed a detailed social and political philosophy that brings together core elements in liberalism, pragmatism, and postmodern, anti-foundationalist philosophy. The Last Conceptual Revolution provides a critique both of Rorty's own provocative political philosophy, as well as an in-depth look at the issues concerning the relationship between the public and the private; between persuasion and force; and arguments about the role of reason in liberal political discourse generally.

Transcends the dichotomy between modernism and postmodernism by arguing for an ethically based notion of solidarity tolerant of radical difference.This book provides a critical analysis of the debate between modernists and postmodernists through an analysis of the work of Jurgen Habermas, focusing on the role that he has played in this debate. The author offers an alternative to the dichotomy between modernism and postmodernism by developing the conception of "the aftermath of modernity" which takes seriously postmodern critiques of modernism while keeping intact certain key enlightenment ideals.

Questions whether the logic of language underlying Habermas's theory of communicative action is in fact the defining feature of conversational practice.Order Without Rules establishes the basic terms for a critical discourse between the theory of communicative action and the tradition of practice-based inquiries inspired by Wittgenstein and elaborated within the field of ethnomethodology. It argues that such a discourse not only is possible, but that it is essential if critical theory is to move beyond the crisis caused by the decline of the great rationalist social projects of the past two centuries and the simultaneous rise of an array of post-enlightenment and anti-rationalist movements waiting to take their place.Since Max Weber social theory has been faced with a paradox-the "problem of rationality"-that seems to challenge the very foundations of critical and humanist visions of modern society. According to Weber, as industrial societies develop they increasingly are dominated by rational procedures for the production of goods, the organization of human resources, and the management of information. The paradox consists in the fact that while modern society is, in this instrumental sense, becoming more rationalized, the prospects for developing political and cultural institutions which are linked to a progressive vision of rational discourse and democratic-will formation are diminished.Order Without Rules addresses the "problem of rationality" in its most contemporary incarnation: the critical theory of the German philosopher and social critic, Jürgen Habermas. Habermas attempts to resolve the Weberian paradox by identifying the rational "core" of communication with universal processes of interpretive understanding that are present in everyday conversation. Drawing upon the work within the Wittgensteinian and ethnomethodological traditions of linguistic and social analysis, this book questions whether the logic of language underlying Habermas's theory of communicative action is in fact the defining feature of conversational practice. It is argued that Habermas's conception of linguistic rules and their connection to rational action is ill-founded, and that a fundamental rethinking of his concept of communicative action is therefore required. Throughout the book, a reflexive orientation is maintained toward questions of method and the internal relationship between disciplinary practices and empirical phenomena.

Questions whether the logic of language underlying Habermas's theory of communicative action is in fact the defining feature of conversational practice.Order Without Rules establishes the basic terms for a critical discourse between the theory of communicative action and the tradition of practice-based inquiries inspired by Wittgenstein and elaborated within the field of ethnomethodology. It argues that such a discourse not only is possible, but that it is essential if critical theory is to move beyond the crisis caused by the decline of the great rationalist social projects of the past two centuries and the simultaneous rise of an array of post-enlightenment and anti-rationalist movements waiting to take their place.Since Max Weber social theory has been faced with a paradox-the "problem of rationality"-that seems to challenge the very foundations of critical and humanist visions of modern society. According to Weber, as industrial societies develop they increasingly are dominated by rational procedures for the production of goods, the organization of human resources, and the management of information. The paradox consists in the fact that while modern society is, in this instrumental sense, becoming more rationalized, the prospects for developing political and cultural institutions which are linked to a progressive vision of rational discourse and democratic-will formation are diminished.Order Without Rules addresses the "problem of rationality" in its most contemporary incarnation: the critical theory of the German philosopher and social critic, Jürgen Habermas. Habermas attempts to resolve the Weberian paradox by identifying the rational "core" of communication with universal processes of interpretive understanding that are present in everyday conversation. Drawing upon the work within the Wittgensteinian and ethnomethodological traditions of linguistic and social analysis, this book questions whether the logic of language underlying Habermas's theory of communicative action is in fact the defining feature of conversational practice. It is argued that Habermas's conception of linguistic rules and their connection to rational action is ill-founded, and that a fundamental rethinking of his concept of communicative action is therefore required. Throughout the book, a reflexive orientation is maintained toward questions of method and the internal relationship between disciplinary practices and empirical phenomena.

Presents a North American philosophy of liberation that defends both metaphysics and philosophy of religion, and acts as a critique of neo-imperialism.Process, Praxis, and Transcendence is a North American philosophy of liberation that defends both metaphysics and philosophy of religion. The book moves from an existential phenomenology of the knowing and choosing subject through affirmation of a processive and liberating Christ to a critique and overcoming of neo-imperialism. Its ultimate theme explores what the appropriate theory and praxis of liberation is for those of us living "in the center of the empire" in North America and Western Europe.