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STRUCTURALISM |
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Intro to Structuralism | ||||
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The Linguistic Turn | ||||
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Structuralism | ||||
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Saussure | ||||
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Proxemics | ||||
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Semiotics | ||||
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Claude Levi-Strauss: Anthropological Structualism | ||||
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Structural Marxism | ||||
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POST STRUCTURALISM |
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Intro to Post Structuralism | ||||
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Derrida | ||||
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Foucault | ||||
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Madness & Civilization | ||||
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POST MODERNISM |
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Intro to Post Modernism | ||||
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Post Modernism | ||||
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Theories of Consumption | ||||
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Post Post Modernism |
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The linguistic turn, the movement to study the impact of language on the formation & operation of society & the psyche, resulted in the development of: |
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- structuralism |
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- post structuralism |
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- post modernism |
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The concept of the linguistic turn signifies that social theory shifted its examination from social to linguistic structures as seen in Habermas' work on communications, ethnomethodologists work on conversational analysis, semiotics focus on signs, etc. |
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The linguistic turn brought together the appeal to language, linguistic representation, discourse, etc. in the quest for knowledge & truth |
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The linguistic turn is the collective designation for a range of otherwise quite disparate trends in 20th C thought |
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What the various usages the concept of the linguistic turn all have
in common is an appeal:
- to language, - to discourse, - to forms of linguistic representation as the furthest point that philosophy can reach in its quest for knowledge and truth |
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There is no 'reality' outside of that in linguistic description, to look outside of language is to be deluded |
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There are no 'facts' outside language, & no 'reality' other than that which presents itself under some linguistic description |
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One is deluded if they look outside of language for truth |
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Language supplies us w/ a crystalline transparency of logical form |
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Thus philosophers & social scientists can only be deluded if they seek to render language more accurate or perspicuous by removing its various natural imperfections |
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The goal of linguists is to remove ambiguity, metaphor, opaque reference, etc. & achieve a crystalline transparency of logical form |
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We should acknowledge a multiplicity of 'language games,'
each w/ its own criteria for validity, each of which 'leads home' |
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Social scientists should follow Wittgenstein's example & acknowledge the open multiplicity of 'language games,' or cultural 'forms of life', each w/ its own criteria for what counts as a valid or meaningful utterance. | |||||
The proper business of philosophy & social science in this therapeutic mode is to cure language of its abstract cravings & ,in the words of Stanley Cavell, to 'lead it back, via the community, home' | |||||
We should use common language, not academic jargon | |||||
The project thus described was pursued most zealously by J. L. Austin & the proponents of so called 'ordinary language' philosophy. | |||||
J. L. Austin
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Some linguists reached 'the end of science' & wanted to cease asking awkward questions & 'leave everything as it is' | |||||
But the trouble w/ the approach of abandoning science for linguist humanism is its tendency to consecrate the nuances of received from 'common-sense' wisdom & thus failing to address more substantive issues | |||||
Linguist humanism can easily give rise to an outlook of laissez faire relativism or an inert consensus based recommendation that philosophy & science should cease asking awkward questions & be content, in Wittgenstein's phrase, to 'leave everything as it is' |
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- Project: Structuralism, the Linguistic Turn, & a Comparison to Classic Structures |
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For most structuralists, structures are unobservable, but generate observable social phenomena |
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However, the label of structuralism is also used in a more specific sense for those theorists who hold that there are a set of social structures that are unobservable but which generate observable social phenomena |
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For most structuralists, structures are unobservable, but generate observable social phenomena | ||||
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Structuralists differ on the constitutions of structures, i.e. which structures exist, which are important, etc. | ||||
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Structuralism was in vogue | ||||
An interdisciplinary movement of thought which enjoyed a high vogue through the 1960s & early 1970s, when it acquired a certain radical cachet, but which has left its most durable mark in the fields of linguistics, anthropology, & literary theory | |||||
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Structuralism focuses on structures that are fundamentally different than Marxist structures or functionalist structures | ||||
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Structuralism generally focuses on linguistic structures | ||||
What unites structuralists in these different fields is the principle, derived from Ferdinand de Saussure, that cultural forms, belief systems, & 'discourses' of every kind can best be understood by analogy w/ language | |||||
Structuralism examines the properties manifest in language when treated from a strictly synchronic standpoint that seeks to analyze its immanent structures of sound & sense | |||||
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The linguistic turn is the shift from the examination of social to linguistic structures | ||||
Examples of the linguistic turn include Habermas' work on communications & ethnomethodologists' work on conversational analysis | |||||
Semiotics is similar to structuralism but has a focus on signs rather than just language | |||||
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Structuralists now rejected mere interpretation as a fruitless endeavor subject to all the vagaries of ad hoc, intuitive response | ||||
Only by examining the structural features of texts can social scientists arrive at a true comprehension of its meaning | |||||
Poetic devices, narrative functions, techniques of linguistic 'defamiliarization,' etc. are all structures that affect the meaning of a text | |||||
The concept of 'text' itself denotes any form of writing, presentation, etc.; i.e. any form of communication | |||||
For structuralists, criticism itself cannot by itself place itself on an equal methodological footing because it is neither inductive nor adequately theorized | |||||
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For some Structuralists, structures are raised to their highest expressive power in poetry & other art forms | ||||
Structuralism represents an advance in its highly sophisticated treatment of rhetorical figures like metaphor & metonymy | |||||
According to Roman Jakobson, the most important aspects of texts are the figures which are the structural axes of all linguistic communication, & which are raised to their highest expressive power in poetry & other art forms | |||||
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Levi Strauss was known as the Father of Structuralism, taking it out of linguistics, to other spheres of social existence | ||||
Structural Marxism was an important influence on Structuralism | |||||
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The structural Marxist view emphasizes that social structures should not be confused w/ visible relations, by their very nature, they have hidden logic | ||||
See Also: Maurice Godelier: Structural Marxism | |||||
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Swiss Linguist Ferdinand de Saussure developed the concepts of langue & parole, which are important to structuralism | ||||
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Roland Barthes is seen as the founder of Semiotics, the study of the structure of the system of signs | ||||
See Also: Semiotics | |||||
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Structuralism in France in the 1960s fostered the emergence of: | ||||
- post structuralism | |||||
- post modernism | |||||
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- Christopher Lash |
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Structural Marxism was advanced by Louis Althusser, Nicos Poulantzas, & Marice Godelier |
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These & other structural Marxists (SM) believe that structuralism began, not w/ Saussure & the linguistic turn, but w/ Marxism |
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"When Marx assumes that structure is not to be confused w/ visible relations & explains their hidden logic, he inaugurates the modern structuralism tradition" Godelier, 1972 |
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Some SMists share w/ structuralist the belief in the necessity in studying structure before the study of history, the genesis of society & its parts, & the evolution of social phenomenon |
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The inner logic of systems, i.e. structures, must be analyzed before their origin is analyzed |
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SMists examine the structures that are formed out of the interplay of social relations |
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The subject of observation is not individual human elements, but rather 'structure' | |||||
Marx did not explain society by appealing to one factor (individuals), but broke it up into related units called 'practices' | |||||
For SMists & structuralists, structures are real, albeit invisible, but structuralists typically focus on the structure of the mind while SMists focus on the underlying structure of society |
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SMists & structuralists reject empiricism & accept a concern for underlying invisible structures, esp empiricist definitions of what constitutes a social structure |
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Structures are not a reality that is directly visible, but a level or reality that exists beyond the visible relations btwn people as the underlying logic of the system, the subjacent order by which apparent order is explained |
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Godelier argued that a pursuit of the underlying logic of systems is the pursuit which defines all science |
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For SMists, what is visible is a reality concealing another, deeper reality, which is hidden |
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The SMists did not take part in the linguistic turn & its focal pt continues to be social & econ structures |
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Althusser distinguishes SM from Marxism in that he condemns the ideas of human potential, species being as outgrowths of bourgeoisie ideology of humanity |
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Althusser distinguishes SM from Marxism in that he borrows the concept of over determination from psychoanalysis, in order to replace the idea of contradiction w/ the more complex model of multiple causality which is to say that for all significant social phenomenon, such as structures, there are multiple factors impacting its nature, i.e. its nature is over determined |
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POST STRUCTURALISTS EXAMINE WHAT THEY BELIEVE TO BE THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL OF STRUCTURES SUCH AS POWER, KNOWLEDGE, SEXUALITY, CRIME, & MORE | |||||
Jacques Derrida's 1966 speech proclaimed the dawning of the post structuralist age |
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Review: Derrida | ||||
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The major post structuralist is Michel Foucault, but he is also considered to be a post modernist | ||||
Review: Foucault | |||||
Foucault focused on structures, but he later moved beyond structures to focus on power & the linkage btwn knowledge & power |
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Post structuralism is the school of thought which emerged in the late 1970s, claiming to supersede, or at any rate to 'problematize,' the earlier structuralism | ||||
Post structuralists accept the importance of structure but go beyond to encompass a wide range of other concerns |
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Post structuralists have the most in common w/ the linguistic structuralists |
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It is difficult to differentiate btwn structuralists, post structuralists, & post modernists |
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LANGUAGE / COMMUNICATION / DISCOURSE IS A FUNDAMENTAL ASPECT OF SOCIETY SINCE WHAT WE SAY ABOUT 'REALITY' DEFINES THAT REALITY | |||||
Post structuralism is best understood as a French inspired variant of the so called 'linguistic turn' |
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The linguistic turn is the idea that all perceptions, concepts, truth claims & their corresponding 'subject positions' are constructed in language & thus are nothing more than transient epi phenomena of this or that cultural discourse |
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From Saussure, post structuralism takes the notion of language as a system of immanent relationships & differences 'without positive terms' |
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Post structuralism takes from Nietzsche its outlook of extreme epistemological & ethico evaluative relativism |
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Post structuralism takes from Foucault the counter Enlightenment rhetoric of 'power/knowledge' as the motivating force behind the talk of reason or truth |
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Post structuralist is vulnerable to all the familiar criticisms - including forms of transcendental refutation - rehearsed against thorough-going skeptics & relativists down through the ages |
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In Madness & Civilization (1965) Foucault does an archaeology of knowledge, specifically of psychiatry |
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In the Renaissance madness & reason were not separated, but btwn 1650 & 1800 (the classical period), distance btwn them is established & reason comes to subjugate madness |
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The separation btwn reason & madness represent a broken dialogue btwn reason & madness & thus reason reigns in the state & madness is torn from the imaginary freedom which allowed it to flourish on the Renaissance horizon |
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In less than half a century madness was sequestered & in the fortress of confinement, bound to reason, to the rules of morality & their monotonous nights |
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Using Weberian iron cage imagery, Foucault sees the mad in the iron cage constructed by those w/ reason |
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Scientific psych of the 19th C arose out of the separation of the mad from the sane in the 18th C |
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At first, medicine was in charge of the physical & moral treatment of the mad, but a purely psychological medicine was made possible when madness was alienated in guilt |
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For Foucault, psychiatry is a moral tactic overlaid w/ positivism that resulted in asylum life but it is more moral than scientific |
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Psychiatry is used against the mad who are unable to protect themselves |
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The mad are sentenced by so called science to a gigantic moral imprisonment |
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Foucault rejects any notion that we have seen scientific, medical, & humanitarian advances in the treatment of the mad, instead he sees the oppression & repression of the mad so that we do not have to look at them or deal w/ them as people |
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Foucault's view of the moral control over the mad is part of a general thesis about the role of the human sciences & the moral control of people |
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Madness occurs at two levels including the (pseudo) scientific level (in that Foucault does not acknowledge the validity of science) & second, at the deepest level, in the wider culture's discourse about madness |
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Madness in the classical age is not the mental or physical changes, it is the delirious language that is the ultimate truth of madness |
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The broader structuralism is seen in classic culture, the experience it had of madness, an experience which has the same meanings about madness as the scientific discourse in both discourse & decree in that people talk the same about madness & isolate the mad, i.e. ostracize them | |||||
Foucault continues his analysis of reason & madness in The Birth of the Clinic (1975) where he focuses on medical discourse & its underlying structure | |||||
Discourse is important not in what people think but in what they actually say & as that which systematizes them from the outset thus making them thereafter endlessly accessible to new discourse & to the task of transforming them | |||||
Thus Foucault is concerned w/ how a particular discourse enhances or limits the possibility of more discourse, of a transforming discourse | |||||
In Madness & Civilization medicine is a precursor of the human sciences & that theme is expanded in the Birth of the Clinic | |||||
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In the 1700s & earlier medicine was a classificatory science only, & the focus was on the construction of a clearly ordered system of diseases |
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In the 1800s medicine focused on diseases as they existed in individuals & the larger society in the form of epidemics | |||||
Medicine then came to be extended to healthy people in the form of preventative care & it adopted a normative order which distinguished btwn healthy & unhealthy, & later normal & pathological states | |||||
Medicine had become, again a forerunner of the human sciences that were to adopt this normal pathological stance toward people | |||||
As of the 1800s, there was no clinical structure in medicine | |||||
The clinic, as it was developed in the late 1800s & early 1900s, was where patients were observed in bed, & Foucault notes the development of the clinical gaze, wherein the gaze was at the same time knowledge | |||||
Knowledge was derived from what doctors could see in contrast to what they read in books | |||||
As a structuralist, Foucault saw the gaze as "a language w/o words" & he was interested in the deep structure of that language | |||||
The autopsy was also part of the gaze, & it was an important source of knowledge | |||||
For Foucault the evolution of knowledge was less important than the epistemic or methodological change | |||||
Under the new epistemology people became patients who became the object of scientific knowledge & practice instead of the disease as the entity | |||||
For Foucault, medicine was a forerunner to the human sciences & medicine had changed not only its methodology but also its ontology or understanding of our state of being as we changed from people to patients thus dividing people into the healthy & the ill | |||||
The deep structural change in medicine is the change of the individual to the subject & object of our own knowledge, & this deep structure has impacted the development of the other social sciences |
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- Project: Post Modernism & Optimism |
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POST MODERNISM HOLDS THAT RATIONALIZATION ULTIMATELY HAS NEGATIVE EFFECTS ON SOCIETY & THAT RATIONALITY WHEN PURSUED TO ITS FULL DEVELOPMENT BECOMES IRRATIONAL | |||
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Post modernity (P-M) is an ideology/ school of thought/ which holds that through rationality, as embodied in the social sciences, we are lead to exploitation & oppression |
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Post modernism developed as a philosophical view from romanticism, which directly followed the Enlightenment & was a reaction against the Enlightenment | |||
For P-M, Friedrich Nietzsche is an important influence; Nietzsche saw Weber's rationalization as mere regimentation & constraint | |||
Post modernism evolved out of the principles of Marxism which hold that we need to reject mainstream culture & create a new culture | |||
For Marx, the proletariat had to create a non bourgeoisie culture, a workers' culture | |||
P-M EMBRACES A FORM OF RADICAL ATHEORETICALITY, METHODS, & FORM OF PRESENTATION | |||
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Post modernism embraces a complete openness to perspectives in social inquiry, art, political empowerment, etc. |
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Many post modernists will not define their position in the affirmative because to do so, is too rational, limiting, oppressive |
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Post modernism's critique of modernity is that it is a flawed ideology or school of thought because rationality crushes the human spirit |
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Post modernity is a new historical epoch that has succeeded the modern era, modernity |
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Post modern social theory is a new way of thinking about post modernity |
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According to the P-Ms, the world is so different it requires a new way to think about it |
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Post modernists ask whether technology, rationality, science, etc. have been given too great a role in society today |
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Post modernists believe that technology, rationality, science, etc. as characterized in modern, industrial society are harmful to society in various ways |
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P-M ADVOCATES MULTI PERSPECTIVISM WHEREIN ALL POINTS OF VIEW / KNOWLEDGE ARE TAKEN INTO ACCT | |||
See Also: Mannheim on multi perspectivalism | |||
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P-M believes that no one kind of knowledge can tell us, or society, what we need to do |
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P-M believes that only one way of knowing things, whether it be science, religion, or an ideology such as Marxism, is inadequate to provide the knowledge we need because there are multiple ways of knowing |
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For the P-M, no one paradigm can tell us "the truth" | |||
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P-M believes that knowledge consists of more than what can be tested scientifically |
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Ways of knowing embraced by P-M include cultural knowledge, artistic knowledge, ethics & examine fields such as justice, happiness, beauty, etc. |
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P-M HOLD THAT SOCIETY NEEDS TO ESCHEW OR EVEN DESTROY THE LARGE BODIES OF 'TAINTED KNOWLEDGE' WHICH EXISTS TODAY BECAUSE IT IS EXPLOITATIVE, BIASED, ETC. | |||
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Postman argues that modern societies are technopolies which are societies in which technology defines religion, art, family, politics, history, truth, privacy, intelligence, etc. |
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For Postman, technopolies have robbed modern people of their souls & invalidated alternative ways of living & believing |
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P-M rejects the positivist notion that things have one meaning |
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For P-M, art, religion, even scientific findings have different meanings to different people |
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Like ethnomethodology, subjective, interpretive meaning is the only valid type of meaning |
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Post modernism rejects mainstream culture to create greater freedom & respect for all | |||
P-M rejects mainstream culture because each school, culture, etc. in some way rejects or limits others | |||
P-Mism advocates total inclusion | |||
CULTURE IS A WINDOW TO UNDERSTANDING SOCIETY; ALL ASPECTS OF CULTURE, ESP MARGINALIZED CULTURE, ARE IMPORTANT | |||
P-M rejects the stratification of culture into "high" & "low" or popular culture & embraces the values of all cultural representations | |||
P-M views high culture as merely culture that, in the past was created for the upper class & was a cultural representation used to differentiate the rich from the poor | |||
An example of the stratification of culture is classic music where the elites paid composers, who were usually lower class, who were elevated to a medieval professional class, to write music that took hundreds of performers | |||
The film Amadeus depicts the relationship of lower class composers writing music for the elites | |||
P-M notes that an example of the stratification of culture is the early depiction of jazz as unsophisticated & not suitable for the upper class | |||
Today jazz & much music of the middle & lower classes, i.e. folk, appalachian, hip hop, etc. are all respected forms of music | |||
For P-M, the people need to create a range of alternative cultures from punk & alternative rock to classic | |||
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Post-modernism rejects many schools of thought such as:
- positivism - functionalism - Marxism - conflict theory - Weberianism |
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For Christopher Lash, P-M is an outgrowth of post-industrial society because the "new classes" of information specialists, & people who have "expressive occupations" such as writers, researchers, entertainers, etc., like Nietzsche embrace diverse forms of knowledge & lifestyles | |||
RATIONALITY IS AN INCOMPLETE METHOD OF UNDERSTANDING / KNOWLEDGE | |||
P-M demonstrates that while scientific knowledge is useful, it cannot by itself solve problems | |||
While modern medicine has the ability to provide better healthier than the world has ever seen, business, ethical, political, & philosophical factors determine the level of access & benefit people receive | |||
The development of P-M demonstrates an important social dynamic in that modern, industrial society calls on people to reject tradition, while post-modern, post-industrial society calls on people to reject science, rationality, etc. | |||
From the point of view of traditionalists, science & rationality offer no real life or morality & instead offer only chaos & nihilism | |||
From the point of view of modernists, post-modernism offers only chaos & nihilism | |||
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For the post modernists, progress is an illusion |
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Post modernism abandons focus on economic & scientific progress
by asking questions such as:
- Have we really made progress? - Who has benefited under "progress"? - Under what criteria does "progress" exist? |
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Post-modernism opposes globalization because it is the ultimate imposition of rationalization | |||
Deconstructionism is a branch of post modern philosophy which emphasizes tearing down "popular culture," e.g., global culture | |||
THE MAIN CRITIQUE OF P-M IS THAT IT ONLY OFFERS CRITICISMS OF SOCIAL THEORY, & NO ALTERNATIVE THEORY OR VISION OF SOCIETY | |||
Critics of P-M note that P-M is very good at deconstructing society, but it really offers no alternatives | |||
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The critique of post modernism is that it substitutes only individualism, cultural diversity, etc. for all of Modernity & popular culture |
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Jurgen Habermas' critique of post modernism is that post modernism is merely an embrace of radical individualism. The | ||
For Habermas, the post modernist's rejection of rationality offers nothing in its place |
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- Project: Post Modernism |
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Fredric Jameson, 1984, 1991, holds that post modernism has FOUR qualities | |||||
a. Post modernity is a depthless, superficial world, a world of simulations such as Disneyland |
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b. Post modernity is a world lacking in affect & emotion |
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c. There is a loss of a sense of one's place in history |
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In the PM age, it is hard to distinguish past, present, & future |
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d. Instead of explosive, expanding, productive technologies, of modernity, Post Modernity is characterized by implosive, flattening, reproductive technologies such as television |
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Ritzer defines post modernism in its opposition to FOUR characteristic ways of thinking |
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a. Post modernism opposes the grand narratives of classical sociology |
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b. Post modernism rejects the tendency to put boundaries btwn disciplines |
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c. Post modernism is interesting in shocking or startling the reader |
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d. Post modernism developed from TWO schools of thought |
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For PMists today there is something fundamentally different about the transmission of meaning & modernism has fundamental flaws in its system of knowledge |
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Econ & techl conditions of our age have given rise to a decentralized, media dominated society in which ideas are simulacra and only inter referential representations & copies of each other, with no real original, stable or objective source for communication and meaning |
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Simulacrum (plural: simulacra), from the Latin simulare, "to make like, to put on an appearance of," originally meaning a material object representing something such as a cult image representing a deity, or a painted still- life of a bowl of fruit |
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By the 1800s the term simulacrum developed a sense of a "mere" image, an empty form devoid of spirit, & descended to connote a specious or fallow representation |
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Baudrillard gave the term a specific meaning in the context of semiotics, extended from its common one: a copy of a copy which has been so dissipated in its relation to the original that it can no longer be said to be a copy |
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For Baudrillard, the simulacrum, therefore, stands on its own as a copy w/o a model |
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An example of a simulacrum is the cartoon Betty Boop which was based on singer Helen Kane who herself rose to fame imitating Annette Hanshaw |
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Hanshaw & Kane have fallen into relative obscurity, while Betty Boop remains an icon of the flapper | ||||
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Inter subjective knowledge, & not objective knowledge is the dominant form of discourse under such PM | ||||
The ubiquity of copies & dissemination fundamentally alters the relationship btwn reader & what is read, btwn observer & the observed, btwn those who consume & those who produce | |||||
Many people who use the term postmodern or postmodernism do not see these developments as positive | |||||
PMist note that ideals have arisen as the result of particular econ & social conditions, including what is described as "late capitalism" & the growth of broadcast media, & that such conditions have pushed society into a new historical period | |||||
A decentralized society inevitably creates responses/perceptions that are described as post modern, such as: | |||||
- the rejection of what are seen as the false | |||||
- imposed unities of meta narrative and hegemony | |||||
- the breaking of traditional frames of genre, structure and stylistic unity | |||||
- the overthrowing of categories that are the result of logocentrism | |||||
- all forms of artificially imposed order | |||||
Scholars who accept the division of post modernity as a distinct period from modernity believe that people today have: | |||||
- collectively eschewed modern ideals | |||||
- adopted ideas that are rooted in the reaction to the restrictions & limitations of modernism & its ideas | |||||
PMists believe concrete & visible techl & econ changes have brought about the new types of thinking | |||||
Lyotard believes that PM is "Simplifying to the extreme, [an] incredulity toward meta narratives" which is to say that people no longer believe in the worldview that modernism brought w/ it, the belief that we can build a better world through the sciences | |||||
For Lyotard, "The narrative function is losing its functors, its great hero, its great dangers, its great voyages, its great goal. It is being dispersed in clouds of narrative language elements" |
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THEORIES OF CONSUMPTION EXAMINE THE INDIVIDUAL & SOCIAL FORCES WHICH SHAPE CONSUMPTION OF MATERIAL GOODS | |||||
Consumer theory exists in both the modernist & post modernist schools | |||||
Coming of age during the Industrial Revolution, energized by the ensuing social problems, sociology has always focused on industry, industrial organizations, work, & workers |
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The industrial / economic focus of social theory is most obvious in Marx, Marxism, etc., Durkheim and the division of labor, Weber on capitalism & bureaucracy, the interest of the Chicago school in work, etc. |
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Simmel looks at consumption in his examination of the tragedy of culture produced by the proliferation of human products |
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Simmel also examined money and fashion | |||||
Thorstein Veblen, 1889, 1994, has a famous work on conspicuous consumption |
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Post modernism defines post modern society as a consumer society w/ the result that consumption plays a central role in that theory |
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Baudrillard, 1970/1998 wrote the Consumer Society |
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Lipovetsky conducts a post postmodern work on the importance of fashion |
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Urry, 1995, Consuming Places |
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Ritzer, 1999, Enchanting a Disenchanted World |
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Humphrey, 1998, Shelf Life |
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While post modernism is widely regarded by many & disdained by others, post post modernism examines a critique of a liberal, humanistic perspective and a shift away from a concern w/ the human subject |
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Ferry & Renaut (1985, 1990) rescue humanism & subjectivity in the face of unbridled rationalism |
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Lilla, 1994, defends human rights as a central focus for all social theory to address |
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Manent, 1994, 1998, self consciously analyzes modernity & the human subject |
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Lipovetsky, 1987, 1994, refutes the tendency of post modern social theorist to be hypercritical of the contemporary world by defending the importance of fashion |
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Fashion enhances rather than detracts from individuality |
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There are eleven criticisms of post modern theory (PMT), including
that it:
1. does not live up to scientific standards 2. is not scientific is simply an ideology 3. is not a theory or school; it is 'play' 4. is vague & abstract 5. offers its own grand narratives 6. offers questionable critiques since it has no normative basis 7. lacks a theory of agency 8. critiques modern society but offers no better vision 9. leads to profound pessimism 10. considers major social issues but ignores key problems of our time 11. rejects the acting subject 12. opposes anything universal 13. has an excessive concern w/ difference 14. rejects the truth 15. has no political agenda |
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1. A criticism of post modern theory is that it does not live up to scientific standards | |||||
PMT does not live up to scientific standards, it intentionally ignores them | |||||
Because PMT does not use the scientific method it is impossible to know which PM ideas are true in the scientific sense | |||||
Most of what PMT holds cannot be falsifiable, i.e. it cannot be disproved | |||||
The criticism of PMT assumes the existence of a scientific model, or reality, & of a search for & the existence of truth, all of which are rejected by PMists | |||||
2. A criticism of post modern theory is that it is not scientific is simply an ideology | |||||
Because PMT does not constitute a body of scientific ideas, it must be looked at as an ideology, which is an untestable world view | |||||
Some parts of life are based solely on belief instead of fact & those parts of life based on belief include PMT & on beliefs we have no grounds to argue that one idea is any better or worse than any other set of ideas | |||||
3. A criticism of PMT is that it is not a theory or school; it is 'play' | |||||
PMT, like play, offers broad generalizations are offered, w/o qualification | |||||
In expressing their opinions, PMists are not restricted to the dispassionate rhetoric of the modern scientist | |||||
The excessive nature of PMT makes it difficult for those outside to accept or understand it | |||||
4. A criticism of PMT is that it it is vague & abstract | |||||
Because of its intentional vagueness, PMT is nearly impossible to connect to the social world | |||||
Meanings of concepts tend to change rapidly | |||||
5. A criticism of PMT is that it it offers its own grand narratives | |||||
PMists critique other social theorists for their grand narratives for totalizing or universalizing, & then offers its own grand narratives which do the same, but in an obfuscated manner | |||||
6. A criticism of PMT is that it offers questionable critiques since it has no normative basis | |||||
PMT maintains that it is value free, based on no controlling norms, but w/o any value basis it is impossible to make any kind of judgment | |||||
7. A criticism of PMT is that it lacks a theory of agency | |||||
8. A criticism of PMT is that it critiques modern society but offers no better vision | |||||
9. A criticism of PMT is that it leads to profound pessimism | |||||
10. A criticism of PMT is that it considers major social issues but ignores key problems of our time | |||||
11. A criticism of PMT is that it rejects the acting subject | |||||
Similar to PMT's lack of agency, PMT has a lack of theory at the micro level, i.e. on the acting subject | |||||
12. A criticism of PMT is that it opposes anything universal | |||||
PMT does not discuss universal, cross cultural categories such as gender & gender oppression | |||||
13. A criticism of PMT is that it has an excessive concern w/ difference | |||||
While PMT does have a concern w/ difference, this focus is made in the abstract & rarely deals directly w/ recognized social issue such as sexism, racism, etc. | |||||
14. A criticism of PMT is that it rejects the truth | |||||
For the PMist, there is no truth, only discussion, but their view of discussion is similar in many ways to the epistemological basis of science as truth based on consensus | |||||
15. A criticism of PMT is that it has no political agenda | |||||
Some social theories such as Marxism, feminism, & others do spawn political agendas, but others such as functionalism & symbolic interactionism have never inspired much of a political agenda |
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