Download or read book Critique of Western Philosophy and Social Theory written by D. Sprintzen and published by Springer. This book was released on 2009-12-07 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The "existential" drama at the heart of the modern world is the result of a truly cataclysmic transformation in our institutions and modes of belief. It rivals in scope and significance, if it does not surpass, the transformation occasioned by the "Scientific Revolution" of the sixteenth and seventeenth century. Few can still doubt - even if they do not yet appreciate - the comprehensive and global scope of this "Second Scientific Revolution." Our fundamental modes of thought and action, institutional structure, personal identity, economic development, and relation to nature, all require radical revision if human life on this planet (and beyond) is to survive and prosper. We are thus confronted with a world whose structures of meaning and corresponding institutional foundations are being undermined, thus presaging a revolutionary transformation. That transformation, however unclear at present, cannot fail to be radical and comprehensive. This work critically evaluates its nature, outlines the structures of an alternative world view and then develops the contours of the social and institutional order it suggests. It concludes with a discussion of practical strategies by which we may reasonably hope to meet the challenges confronting our civilization.
Download or read book History of Western Philosophy written by Bertrand Russell and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Social Theory of Practices written by Stephen P. Turner and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2018-03-08 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents the first analysis and critique of the idea of practice as it has developed in the various theoretical traditions of the social sciences and the humanities. The concept of a practice, understood broadly as a tacit possession that is 'shared' by and the same for different people, has a fatal difficulty, the author argues. This object must in some way be transmitted, 'reproduced', in Bourdieu's famous phrase, in different persons. But there is no plausible mechanism by which such a process occurs. The historical uses of the concept, from Durkheim to Kripke's version of Wittgenstein, provide examples of the contortions that thinkers have been forced into by this problem, and show the ultimate implausibility of the idea of the interpersonal transmission of these supposed objects. Without the notion of 'sameness' the concept of practice collapses into the concept of habit. The conclusion sketches a picture of what happens when we do without the notion of a shared practice, and how this bears on social theory and philosophy. It explains why social theory cannot get beyond the stage of constructing fuzzy analogies, and why the standard constructions of the contemporary philosophical problem of relativism depend upon this defective notion.
Download or read book Wittgenstein and the Idea of a Critical Social Theory written by Nigel Pleasants and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-01-31 with total page 12 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book uses the philosophy of Wittgenstein as a perspective from which to challenge the very idea of critical social theory, represented preeminently by Giddens, Habermas and Bhaskar. Renouncing the quest for an alternative Wittgensteinian theory of social and political life, the author shows that Wittgenstein nevertheless has considerable significance for critical thought and practice.
Download or read book False Moves in Philosophy and Social Theory written by Patrick Murray and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-10-14 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book considers diverse philosophical topics unified by the identification of false moves commonly found in modern philosophy, mainstream Anglo-American philosophy, and social theory. The authors expose the sources of fundamental problems that recur in philosophy—basic problems with what the authors call "factoring philosophy." Factoring philosophy fails to attend to the phenomenological task of determining when what is distinguishable is separable and when not. Consequently, factoring philosophy makes phenomenological mistakes—false moves—when it treats as separable what is only distinguishable. Analytic philosophy is prone to false moves when it fails to recognize that phenomenology is the necessary complement to analysis. There is nothing wrong with analysis—we might as well give up thinking as give up analysis—and nothing is wrong with the values prized by analytic philosophy. As Hegel observed, “philosophizing requires, above all, that each thought should be grasped in its full precision and that nothing should remain vague and indeterminate.” Ultimately, this book contends that false moves prevail in philosophical analysis and social theory when they neglect their phenomenological foundations.
Download or read book The Idea of a Critical Theory written by Raymond Geuss and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1981-10-30 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of this series is to help make contemporary European philosophy intelligible to a wider audience in the English-speaking world, and to suggest its interest and importance in particular to those trained in analytical philosophy.
Download or read book The Racial Contract written by Charles W. Mills and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2022-04-15 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Racial Contract puts classic Western social contract theory, deadpan, to extraordinary radical use. With a sweeping look at the European expansionism and racism of the last five hundred years, Charles W. Mills demonstrates how this peculiar and unacknowledged "contract" has shaped a system of global European domination: how it brings into existence "whites" and "non-whites," full persons and sub-persons, how it influences white moral theory and moral psychology; and how this system is imposed on non-whites through ideological conditioning and violence. The Racial Contract argues that the society we live in is a continuing white supremacist state. As this 25th anniversary edition—featuring a foreword by Tommy Shelbie and a new preface by the author—makes clear, the still-urgent The Racial Contract continues to inspire, provoke, and influence thinking about the intersection of the racist underpinnings of political philosophy.
Download or read book A Post Western Account of Critical Cosmopolitan Social Theory written by Michael Murphy and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-01-28 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Michael Murphy argues that if cosmopolitanism is to remain critical and relevant, rather than set out another grand project, what is required is a process of critique and cooperation. At the level of inter-cultural exchange, this requires understanding the encounter with the Other as a mutual phase of development and holds out the potential to rejuvenate world philosophies.Through this process the cosmopolitan imagination emerges from a dialogue between global traditions of relational sociologies on matters of common concern. The second stage of the book applies this methodology to provide a radical account of being and acting in the world. This will be achieved through engaging in conversation with the works of the critical theorist Gerard Delanty, the decolonial theorist Walter Mignolo, and the Buddhist, Confucian, and phenomenological inspired work of Watsuji Tetsurō. In providing a move away from abstractions and ideals to instead focus on injustices and the everyday life, Murphy uncovers an independent source for political legitimacy not defined by the rationality of the state or dependent on the ideals of Western philosophy. Part of this investigation also reveals a post-individual account of agency as an enactive being. Emphasising agency as becoming has the potential to allow us to reimagine the relationship between the self and the institutions of democracy. The main themes of this book are eurocentrism, critical cosmopolitanism, post-individual subjectivity and democracy.
Download or read book Western Philosophy written by John G. Cottingham and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2007-11-28 with total page 882 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Western Philosophy: An Anthology provides the most comprehensive and authoritative survey of the Western philosophical tradition from ancient Greece to the leading philosophers of today. Features substantial and carefully chosen excerpts from all the greats of philosophy, arranged thematically and chronologically Readings are introduced and linked together by a lucid philosophical commentary which guides the reader through the key arguments Embraces all the major subfields of philosophy: theory of knowledge and metaphysics, philosophy of mind, religion and science, moral philosophy (theoretical and applied), political theory, and aesthetics Updated edition now includes additional contemporary readings in each section Augmented by two completely new sections on logic and language, and philosophy and the meaning of life
Download or read book Philosophers on Race written by Julie K. Ward and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philosophers on Race adds a new dimension to current research on race theory by examining the historical roots of the concept in the works of major Western philosophers.
Download or read book Tensions in Social Theory written by Braulio Muñoz and published by Loyola Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The End of Progress written by Amy Allen and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2016-01-12 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While post- and decolonial theorists have thoroughly debunked the idea of historical progress as a Eurocentric, imperialist, and neocolonialist fallacy, many of the most prominent contemporary thinkers associated with the Frankfurt School—Jürgen Habermas, Axel Honneth, and Rainer Forst—have defended ideas of progress, development, and modernity and have even made such ideas central to their normative claims. Can the Frankfurt School's goal of radical social change survive this critique? And what would a decolonized critical theory look like? Amy Allen fractures critical theory from within by dispensing with its progressive reading of history while retaining its notion of progress as a political imperative, so eloquently defended by Adorno. Critical theory, according to Allen, is the best resource we have for achieving emancipatory social goals. In reimagining a decolonized critical theory after the end of progress, she rescues it from oblivion and gives it a future.
Download or read book The Handy Western Philosophy Answer Book written by Ed D’Angelo and published by Visible Ink Press. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 515 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Difficult philosophy made easy. The universe and our place in it, the meaning of life, the nature of justice and the good society, and the powers of reason. All these topics explored, questioned, and explained. Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Stoicism, Skepticism, Cynicism, Continental philosophy, ethics, government and governing, virtue, love, life, and death. Heidegger, Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, Derrida, Bertrand Russell, and Michel Foucault.... From famous figures in the history of philosophy to the deepest questions of religion to the relationship between knowledge and power, The Handy Western Philosophy Answer Book: The Ancient Greek Influence on Modern Understanding makes esoteric ideas and the jumble of names easy to understand, enriching readers’ lives and answering the question, What does philosophy have to teach us about life and society? Today many people experience a loss of trust in government and organized religion. There's increased social isolation and a rise in insult politics. Seeking an alternative, some have experimented with new forms of politics, social organization, and spirituality. All these developments have led to a great deal of confusion and puzzlement. Who and what can we believe, and how can we know it is correct? From its beginning, philosophy was conceived as a conversation or dialogue, and The Handy Western Philosophy Answer Book raises and offers answers to questions like these ... What is philosophy? What is metaphysics? What is logic? How is ethics different than morality? How did Pre-Socratic philosophy get started? What is the arrow paradox? Who was Pythagoras? How did Stoicism inspire modern cognitive psychotherapy? Who was the founder of Western philosophy? What is a harmonic sequence in music? What are the four cardinal virtues? Was pederasty condoned in ancient Greece? How, according to Plato, is philosophy like making love? What are the three parts of the soul? How does democracy degenerate into tyranny? What is the history of Alexander the Great’s military campaigns? How did Alexander the Great change the course of the history of philosophy? What did Aristotle say about the social nature of human beings? What is Aristotle’s conception of the soul? What is the soul of a plant? What is virtue? What is an emotion? Why do we need friends? Why did Aristotle believe that the state has a responsibility to educate its citizens? What did Aristotle think about money? What is the meaning and origin of the Serenity Prayer? What impact did the Epicureans have on the modern world? What was the museum of Alexandria? How did Stoicism inspire modern cognitive psychotherapy? What is the problem with the sentence “The present king of France is bald”? What is the postmodern condition? Philosophy is the pursuit of answers to big questions about the purpose of life, death, and existence. Philosophy is about how to reason and find the answers for yourself. Philosophy is a puzzle. You collect clues. You make connections. The Handy Western Philosophy Answer Book is a perfect companion for anyone seeking wider truths and happiness. It is an informative, accessible, easy-to-understand guide to the big questions about living. With more than 120 photos and graphics, it is richly illustrated. Plus, its helpful bibliography, glossary of terms, and extensive index add to its usefulness.
Download or read book Philosophy Between the Lines written by Arthur M. Melzer and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2014-09-09 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Shines a floodlight on a topic that has been cloaked in obscurity . . . a landmark work in both intellectual history and political theory” (The Wall Street Journal). Philosophical esotericism—the practice of communicating one’s unorthodox thoughts “between the lines”—was a common practice until the end of the eighteenth century. Despite its long and well-documented history, however, esotericism is often dismissed today as a rare occurrence. But by ignoring esotericism, we risk cutting ourselves off from a full understanding of Western philosophical thought. Walking readers through both an ancient (Plato) and a modern (Machiavelli) esoteric work, Arthur M. Melzer explains what esotericism is—and is not. It relies not on secret codes, but simply on a more intensive use of familiar rhetorical techniques like metaphor, irony, and insinuation. Melzer explores the various motives that led thinkers in different times and places to engage in this strange practice, while also exploring the motives that lead more recent thinkers not only to dislike and avoid this practice but to deny its very existence. In the book’s final section, “A Beginner’s Guide to Esoteric Reading,” Melzer turns to how we might once again cultivate the long-forgotten art of reading esoteric works. The first comprehensive, book-length study of the history and theoretical basis of philosophical esotericism, Philosophy Between the Lines is “a treasure-house of insight and learning. It is that rare thing: an eye-opening book . . . By making the world before Enlightenment appear as strange as it truly was, [Melzer] makes our world stranger than we think it is” (George Kateb, Professor of Politics, Emeritus, at Princeton University). “Brilliant, pellucid, and meticulously researched.” —City Journal
Download or read book Cynical Theories written by Helen Pluckrose and published by Pitchstone Publishing (US&CA). This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly Bestseller! Have you heard that language is violence and that science is sexist? Have you read that certain people shouldn't practice yoga or cook Chinese food? Or been told that being obese is healthy, that there is no such thing as biological sex, or that only white people can be racist? Are you confused by these ideas, and do you wonder how they have managed so quickly to challenge the very logic of Western society? In this probing and intrepid volume, Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay document the evolution of the dogma that informs these ideas, from its coarse origins in French postmodernism to its refinement within activist academic fields. Today this dogma is recognizable as much by its effects, such as cancel culture and social-media dogpiles, as by its tenets, which are all too often embraced as axiomatic in mainstream media: knowledge is a social construct; science and reason are tools of oppression; all human interactions are sites of oppressive power play; and language is dangerous. As Pluckrose and Lindsay warn, the unchecked proliferation of these anti-Enlightenment beliefs present a threat not only to liberal democracy but also to modernity itself. While acknowledging the need to challenge the complacency of those who think a just society has been fully achieved, Pluckrose and Lindsay break down how this often-radical activist scholarship does far more harm than good, not least to those marginalized communities it claims to champion. They also detail its alarmingly inconsistent and illiberal ethics. Only through a proper understanding of the evolution of these ideas, they conclude, can those who value science, reason, and consistently liberal ethics successfully challenge this harmful and authoritarian orthodoxy—in the academy, in culture, and beyond.
Download or read book The Demoralization of Western Culture written by Ralph Fevre and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "There is a continuing popular debate in the Western world about values, and in particular those values according to which we conduct our private lives. This debate reflects genuine confusion about our morality; it seems that we are more unsure about where right and wrong might lie than at any previous point in our history. In The Demoralization of Western Culture Ralph Fevre undertakes an ambitious exercise in social theory that attempts to produce a comprehensive explanation of these difficulties. His book is most concerned with two main ideas: the application of rationality in the wrong place, and the type of rationality that is being misapplied. He argues that the most important cause behind the demoralization of our culture lies in the popularity of a particular sort of reasoning, a sub-category of rationality called "common sense" which came to dominate our thinking during the twentieth century. One example of this kind of reasoning is the rational application of cost benefit analysis to things that have symbolic value, such as when we weigh the costs of day care versus staying home with the children. In doing so, Fevre argues, we have just applied a cost benefit analysis to our relationships with our children. Fevre writes "The way reason spreads to areas in which belief used to matter underpins demoralization ..." and he applies this notion to all aspects of our lives, from our sexual relationships to our careers. Drawing on a wide variety of existing social theory, as well as evidence from surveys, polls, journalism, and various forms of cultural commentary, Fevre's book aims to be accessible to all those with an interest in the present crisis of values. The evidence he brings together to support his argument includes information about work, art, sex, religion, political legitimacy, ecology, nationalism and advertising. Underlying his concern with accessibility lies a deeper conviction about what social science should be. Breaking free of the co.
Download or read book The Dilemma of Western Philosophy written by Michael A. Peters and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-28 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited collection takes a multifaceted approach to the various limitations and achievements of Western philosophy. Considered on its own, Western philosophy is a highly contentious name. The contributors question its validity as a label and take to task its grand appearance within education. However, part of the problem with Western philosophy is that it has less conventional as well as dominant manifestations. The writers consider both forms of Western philosophy, devoting significant thought and time to it in its own right, but always referring it to the more specific issue of education. This book adds to a growing corpus that sketches the relationship between education and philosophy, showing that they are deeply intertwined, and it is indeed philosophy (and especially its Western variation) that supports Western education and allows it to flourish in the first instance. It is fitting, then, that at various points this book depicts education as a hegemonic vehicle of a deeper phenomenon – that of dominant Western philosophy. This book was originally published as a special issue of Educational Philosophy and Theory.
