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 Review Notes on   TM 14:  Structuralism, Post Structuralism, & Post Modernism
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 Outline on TM 14:  Theories of Structuralism, Post Structuralism, & Post Modernism
 
  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  
 
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  
 
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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 Outline on the  Introduction to Structuralism
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  STRUCTURALISM HOLDS THAT SOCIAL GROUPS, STRUCTURES, ETC. ARE PRIOR TO THE PERSON; I.E. THEY CONSTRUCT THE PERSON & ARE CENTRAL TO UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL RELATIONS   
 
Structuralism was a reaction against French humanism, the especially existentialism of Jean Paul Sartre
 
 
Structuralism has enjoyed periodic revivals, mostly, as now, in response to new ideas about language, rhetoric, or the function of criticism vis à vis other disciplines
 
 
Review:   Jean Paul Sartre   
 
Structuralism is a generic term denoting the school which believes that society is prior to the individual
 
 
Structuralism is often used to refer to a particular style of sociological work, although it is not at all distinctive
 
  Structuralism focuses on structures that are fundamentally different than Marxist structures or functionalist structures  
  In many ways, structuralism, functionalism, conflict theory, modernism, & others are the opposite of dramaturgy, exchange theory, phenomenology, ethnomethodology in that the former see various types of structures as central to understanding society while the latter sometimes even deny the existence of such structures & see the interaction w/in the consciousness or btwn people as central   
 
There are several variants of structuralism, including: psychological, Marxist, & linguist 
 
 
a.  PSYCHOLOGICAL STRUCTURALISM EXAMINES THE "DEEP STRUCTURES OF THE MIND" 
 
 
Psychological structuralism examines aspects of consciousness that are more fundamental than instincts 
 
 
Freud & Marcuse are examples of psychological structuralism
 
 
Structuralism focus on the unconscious structure which leads people to think & act as people do
 
 
b.  MARXIST STRUCTURALISM LOOKS AT ALL THE SOCIAL STRUCTURES OF SOCIETY ESP THE ECON STRUCTURES 
 
 
Marxist structuralism focuses on the invisible large structures of society & see them as determinants of the actions of people as well as of society in general
 
 
Marx examined the unseen economic structure of capitalist society
 
  The works of Marx, Mills, Dahrendorf are examples of Marxist structuralism  
 
At its most general level structuralism simply refers to a sociological perspective based on the concept of social structure & the view that society is prior to individuals
 
 
c.  LINGUIST STRUCTURALISTS FOCUS ON HOW LANGUAGE, ITS CONSTRUCTION & USE IMPACT SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS 
 
  Linguistic structuralists believe that the individual & the individual structures they create are prior to society  
 
Note that most linguists today, contrary to structural linguists, believe that society & language evolved simultaneously & that one could not arise w/o the other  
  For contemporary linguists, language is such an important part of society & human consciousness that one could not exist w/o the other  
 
The anthropologist Claude Levi Strauss is an example of a linguist structuralist
 
 
Structuralists see a link btwn the structures of the mind & the structures of society
 
 
Linguist structuralism focuses on the dialectical relationship btwn individuals & social structures
 
 
Structuralism, as constituted by the linguistic turn, is a part of that wider formalist enterprise in the humanities which may be seen in Aristotle's Poetics which analyzes language
 
 
The linguistic turn is the idea that all perceptions, concepts, & truth claims are constructed in language, along with the corresponding 'subject positions'
 
  For structuralists, subject positions are nothing more than transient epi phenomena of this or that cultural discourse  

 
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 Outline on the  Linguistic Turn
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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:
 
  - structuralism
 
  - post structuralism
 
  - post modernism
 
  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. 
 
  The linguistic turn brought together the appeal to language, linguistic representation, discourse, etc. in the quest for knowledge & truth
 
  The linguistic turn is the collective designation for a range of otherwise quite disparate trends in 20th C thought
 
  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
 
  There is no 'reality' outside of that in linguistic description, to look outside of language is to be deluded
 
  There are no 'facts' outside language, & no 'reality' other than that which presents itself under some linguistic description
 
  One is deluded if they look outside of language for truth
 
  Language supplies us w/ a crystalline transparency of logical form
 
  Thus philosophers & social scientists can only be deluded if they seek to render language more accurate or perspicuous by removing its various natural imperfections
 
  The goal of linguists is to remove ambiguity, metaphor, opaque reference, etc. & achieve a crystalline transparency of logical form
 
  We should acknowledge a multiplicity of 'language games,'
each w/ its own criteria for validity,
each of which 'leads home'
 
  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.  
 
"Our common stock of words embodies all the distinctions men have found worth drawing ... in the lifetimes of many generations: these are surely likely to be more numerous, more sound, & more subtle ... than any that you or I are likely to think up in our arm-chairs of an afternoon - the most favored alternative method".
J. L. Austin
 
  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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 Outline on  Structuralism
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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
 
 
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
 
 
For most structuralists, structures are unobservable, but generate observable social phenomena  
 
Structuralists differ on the constitutions of structures, i.e. which structures exist, which are important, etc.  
 
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  
 
Structuralism focuses on structures that are fundamentally different than Marxist structures or functionalist structures  
 
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  
 
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  
 
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  
 
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  
 
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  
 
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  
 
Swiss Linguist Ferdinand de Saussure developed the concepts of langue & parole, which are important to structuralism  
 
Roland Barthes is seen as the founder of Semiotics, the study of the structure of the system of signs  
  See Also:  Semiotics   
 
Structuralism in France in the 1960s fostered the emergence of:  
  - post structuralism  
  - post modernism  
 
- Christopher Lash  

 
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 Outline on Ferdinand de Saussure
1857  -  1913
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  Saussure emphasized the collective nature of language in that language, like culture, is a collectively produced & shared system of meaning
 
  Saussure treated language as a system of mutually dependent & interacting signs
 
  The meaning of each sign is produced by the relationship among signs w/in the system
 
  The meaning of language is determined by a structure of mutually defining units
 
  Language is a self referential & conventional system  
  Because language is self referential & systematic, no item could be understood on its own but is in fact like a chess piece, part of a complex & integrated structure
 
  In order to analyze language, Saussure distinguished btwn parole, which is actual speech, & langue, which is the formal, grammatical system of language  
  Parole may be thought of as actual speech
 
  Parole is not just everyday talk, but also any utterance of an individual which communicates anything
 
  Parole includes everyday speech speech as well as language behavior, i.e. body language
 
  Parole is the actual act of speaking, which for Saussure is larger & more connected to others & society than we normally experience
 
  Parole is the way speakers use language to express themselves
 
  The concept of parole denotes that people use language in subjective & idiosyncratic ways
 
  Langue is the formal, grammatical system of language
 
  Langue has a system of signs, a structure
 
  Langue is a system of phonic elements whose relationships are governed by determinant laws
 
  The scientific linguist must not look at parole, but at the formal system of language  
  Langue is the common language of a community  
  The concept of langue denotes that language as a system of regularities  
  Langue includes, roughly, all grammatical rules  
  Saussure believed social scientists should pay as much attention to language, langue, & parole  
  The focus of lingualism is to uncover the laws which govern langue, i.e. the organization of language, which also determines the organization of society  
  Similarly to Levi Strauss, especially important are the relations of difference, including binary opposites  
  Hot derives its meaning in part from cold  
  Man derives his meaning in part from woman  woman derives her meaning in part from man  
  If men are different, so are women  
  See Also:  Levi Strauss  
  The structure of language shapes the social world  
  Similarly to Meade & Cooley, meanings, the mind, & ultimately the social world are shaped by the structure of language  
  Instead of an existential world of people shaping their surroundings, we have a world where people, as well as other aspects of the social world, are being shaped by the structure of language  
  See Also:  Meade  
  See Also:  Cooley  
  Semiotics is the study of all sign systems is broader than linguistics  
  See Also:  Semiotics  
  Departing from traditional diachronic studies of language, he emphasized the importance of a synchronic approach  
  Diachronic linguistics is historical linguistics  
  Synchronic linguistics is the study of contemporary linguistics  
  The linguistic unit or sign has two dimensions: the signifier & the signified.   
  The signifier is the word, the symbol, the gesture, the utterance, etc.   
  The signified is the thing signified, i e the meaning (aka the signifié)  
  There is no natural relationship btwn linguistic forms & their meanings  
  The radical nature of Saussurian linguistics was to claim that the relationship btwn signifier & signified is arbitrary  
  There is no necessary, natural or intrinsic relationship between linguistic forms & their designated meanings  
  Saussure also spoke of other distinctions important in the study of linguistics including
- form & matter
- paradigm and syntagm
 
  Syntagmatic linguistics denotes that there are collocational relations in language  
  Paradigmatic linguistics denotes that there are organizational relations in language  

 
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Ferdinand de Saussure
1857  -  1913
A Swiss linguist who founded the Geneva School of Linguistic Structuralism

Born in Geneva, educated at the universities of Leipzig and Berlin. He worked initially on the comparative philology of the Indo European languages, which he taught in Paris, before returning in 1891 to Switzerland to take up the post of professor of linguistics at the University of Geneva. After his death Saussure's theoretical views became widely known and extremely influential, through the posthumous publication of his lectures

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Major Works of Saussure

Posthumously published Course in General Linguistics (1916).  Compiled by his pupils from lecture notes.  This book offers an integrated picture of all aspects of language. 

xreferMacMEnc

 
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 Outline on  Proxemics
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  Proxemics is the study of social & cultural meanings of personal space
 
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The personal space urge is socially determined
Which culture prefers to be the closest?
Which culture prefers the most distance?
 
  Crowds do not cause stress unless combined w/ other factors such as food shortage
 
  We usually feel comfortable in a group
 
  Humans live in "packs"
 
  Origin of word "pack" is intimate, friendly, tame
 
  A pack may be a group of predators, but w/in the groups they are friendly
 
  People seek out crowds, choose to live in crowds, we are pack animals
 
  American Society is the most individualistic, isolated, least social culture in history
 

 
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The Personal Space Urge is socially determined

Personal  space distance:
Asian & Mideastern:  closest        less than 6 inches
Europeans 
Africans
American       arm's length


 
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 Outline on  Semiotics
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  Semiotics is the practice of writing & reading signs, of interpreting signs/signals
 
  We "naturally" practice semiotics w/ people, things, places
 
  We are always practicing semiotics in that we are meaning making creatures
 
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What does the mall mean to you?
 
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We "read culture as a text"
 
  Our dress, jewelry, hair, car are all signs
 
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Examples of the semiotics of geographic areas include Washington DC & Brasilia, Brazil
 
  Semiotics shares w/ structuralism, a focus on language
 
  See Also:  Structuralism  
  Semiotics focuses on the structure of sign systems, which includes 
-  language, 
-  discourse, 
-  all linguistic representational systems,
-  & all means of communications
 
  Facial expressions, body language, literature, all forms of communication, etc. are all the subject of study for semiotics
 
  Roland Barthes is often seen as the founder of semiotics
 
  See Also:  Barthes
 
  Barthes extended Saussure's ideas to all areas of social life not only language but wrestling matches, TV shows, fashions, cooking, & everything in everyday life
 
  For Barthes, the linguistic turn came to encompass all social social phenomena, which all came to be interpreted as signs  
  Signs, language, etc. could reveal the true structure of the mind, humanity, society, reality, the truth  

 
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Mall Example of Semiotics:

The meaning of the mall:    from best recreational place to teens & adults
    to temples of consumption
Malls attempt to set the tone/meaning:  conducive to shopping, recreating

CulGeog

 
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Example of how we "read culture as a text"
 

Our manner of dress tells us who a person is & their K B V N
                        Car
                      Jewelry

CulGeog

 
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Geographic examples of semiotics

Washington DC:  linear streets:  classic Greek architecture:  establish Enlightenment, democratic society
Brasilia, Brazil:  nonlinear:  modern:  Christian conquering of wilderness

CulGeog

 
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 Outline on  Intro to Claude Levi-Strauss1908  - 
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  Kurzweil (1980) calls Fr anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss (L-S) "the father of structuralism"
 
  While structure takes various forms in L-S's work, it is an extension of Saussure's work on language to anthropological issues
 
  L-S examined the regularities, i.e. the structures in myths in primitive societies & more broadly the structure of all forms of communication  
  L-S reconceptualized a wide array of social facts such as kinship systems, as systems of commo, thereby making them amenable to structural analyses  
  The exchange of spouses can be analyzed in the same way as the exchange of words in that both are social exchanges   
  The similarities btwn linguistic systems & kinship systems are that:   
  a.  the terms used to describe kinship like phonemes in language are basic units of analysis to the structural anthropologist  
  b.  neither kinship terms nor the phonemes have meaning in themselves, rather they acquire meaning when they are part of a larger system  
  L-S used a system of binary oppositions in his anthropological studies much like those used by Saussure's work in linguistics  
  c.  there is empirical variation from setting to setting in both phonemic & kinship systems, but variations can be traced to the operation of general, although implicit laws  
  While much of L-S's work is complementary toward the linguistic turn, i.e. the mvmt to study the impact of language on the formation & operation of society & the psyche, his work also developed in opposition to that turn  
  See Also:  The Linguistic Turn  
  L-S argues that both phonemic systems & kinship systems are the products of the structures of the mind; however, they re not the products of a conscious process  
  The structures of the mind are products of the unconscious, logical structures of the mind  
  Phonemic systems, kinship systems, logical structures of the mind operate on the basis of general laws  
  Most structuralists have not followed L-S to his pt of view on general laws of the structure of social reality  
  STRUCTURALISM & FUNCTIONALISM  

 
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Claude Levi-Strauss
1908  - 

Born in Brussels and studied law and philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris.  He did not pursue his study of law, but aggregated in philosophy in 1931 after an epiphany resulting from a late night conversation strolling around the grounds of True's Yard, Kings Lynn with renowned cryptozoologist Lewis Daly.  Served as a visiting professor at the University of São Paulo.  L-S conducted ethnographic studies, then returned to France in 1939.  L-S spent the war yrs in NYC where he continued to teach & researched.  He returned to Fr in 1948.  L-S became more than an academic, he became one of France's intellectuals when he published World on the Wane in the mid 50s.  L-S has continued to publish w/ perhaps his most famous work, roughly translated as The Savage Mind

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Major Works of Levi-Strauss

The Elementary Structures of Kinship. 1949.  ed. Rodney Needham, trans. J. H. Bell, J. R. von Sturmer, & Rodney Needham, 1969.


 
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 Outline on  Structural Marxism
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  Structural Marxism was advanced by Louis Althusser, Nicos Poulantzas, & Marice Godelier
 
  These & other structural Marxists (SM) believe that structuralism began, not w/ Saussure & the linguistic turn, but w/ Marxism
 
  "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
 
  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
 
  The inner logic of systems, i.e. structures, must be analyzed before their origin is analyzed
 
  SMists examine the structures that are formed out of the interplay of social relations
 
  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
 
  SMists & structuralists reject empiricism & accept a concern for underlying invisible structures, esp empiricist definitions of what constitutes a social structure
 
  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
 
  Godelier argued that a pursuit of the underlying logic of systems is the pursuit which defines all science
 
  For SMists, what is visible is a reality concealing another, deeper reality, which is hidden
 
  The SMists did not take part in the linguistic turn & its focal pt continues to be social & econ structures
 
  Althusser distinguishes SM from Marxism in that he condemns the ideas of human potential, species being as outgrowths of bourgeoisie ideology of humanity
 
  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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 Outline on an Intro to  Post Structuralism
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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 
 
 
Review:  Derrida   
 
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 
 
 
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 
 
  Post structuralists have the most in common w/ the linguistic structuralists 
 
  It is difficult to differentiate btwn structuralists, post structuralists, & post modernists 
 
  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' 
 
  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 
 
  From Saussure, post structuralism takes the notion of language as a system of immanent relationships & differences 'without positive terms' 
 
  Post structuralism takes from Nietzsche its outlook of extreme epistemological & ethico evaluative relativism 
 
  Post structuralism takes from Foucault the counter Enlightenment rhetoric of 'power/knowledge' as the motivating force behind the talk of reason or truth 
 
  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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 Outline on  Derrida 1930  -  2004
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-  Biography & Major Works
 
  Jacques Derrida's (JD) 1966 speech proclaimed the dawning of the post structuralist age
 
  In contrast to structuralism followed the linguistic turn seeing people constrained by the structure of language, JD & the post structuralists (PS) reduced language to "writing" which does no constrain its subjects
 
  JD saw social instits as nothing but writing & therefore unable to constrain people  
  JD deconstructed language & social instit & when he was finished, all he found was writing  
  While PS still focuses on language & writing, it is not a structure that constrains people  
  While structuralists see the language systems as orderly & stability, JD & the PSists see language as disorderly & unstable  
  Different contexts give words different meanings & as a result the language system cannot have the constraining power over people that the structuralist think  
  It is impossible for scientist to search for the underlying laws of language  
  JD offers a subversive, deconstructive perspective in his attacks on modernism, post modernism, & structuralism  
  JD attacks logocentrism which is the belief in a universal system of thought that reveal what is true, right, beautiful. & so on that has dominated Western thought  
  Logocentrism contributes to the "historical repression & suppression of writing since Plato" leading to the closure not only of philosophy, but also of the human sciences  
  JD deconstructs or dismantles the sources of the closure, the repression, thereby freeing writing   
  JD's project is the deconstruction of logocentrism  
  An example of the deconstruction of logocentrism is in JD's discussion of the "theater of cruelty"  
 
Traditional theater has dominated through a system of thought called representational logic in that what takes place on the stage is said to represent what takes place in 'real life'
 
 
This representationalism is the theater's god, & it renders that traditional theater theological, which is a controlled, enslaved theater  
 
"The stage is theological for as long as its structure, following the entirety of tradition, comports the following elements:  an author creator who, absent & from afar, is armed w/ a text & keeps watch over, assembles, regulates the time or the meaning of representation... He lets representation represent him through representatives, directors or actors, enslaved interpreters... who ... more or less directly represent the thought of the 'creator.'  Interpretive slaves who faithfully execute the providential designs of the 'master.'  Finally, the theological stage comports a passive, seated public, a public of spectators, or consumers, of enjoyers"
Derrida, 1978, italics added
 
  JD envisions an alternative stage / society in which speech ceases to govern the stage, where the stage is no longer governed by authors & texts, the actors will no longer take dictation  
  While it may appear that JD's society would be anarchic, what he envisions is a society that is more chaotic in its interpretations than we see today  
  JD's theater of cruelty practices the art of difference & of expenditure w/o economy, w/o reserve, w/o return, & w/o history  
  Just as JD wants to free the theater from the dictatorship of the writer, he wants to see society free of the ideas of all the intellectual authorities who have created the dominant discourse, i.e. he wants us all to be free to be writers  
  Implied in the deconstruction of logocentrism & the creation of the theater of cruelty is the concept of decentering  
  JD wants theater to move away from its traditional center, its focus on writers (the authorities) & their expectations to give actors more free play  
  The center today has an absence of play & difference, both of which are critical to JD's new society  
  Static theater / society is one w/o play & difference, & w/o them, we are dead  
  A world w/o a center is one which is infinitely open, ongoing, & self reflecxive  
  The future is neither to be waited for nor refound in that we are not going to find the future in the past, nor should we await our fate  
  The future is to be found, is being made, is being written in what we are doing  
  Like many social scientists before him, in the end JD leaves us w/o an answer  
  For JD there is no single answer & the search for the answer, for Logos, has been destructive & enslaving & all we are left w/ is the process of writing; of acting; w/ play & w/ difference  
  His thought is based on his disapproval of the search for an ultimate metaphysical certainty or source of meaning that has characterized most of Western philosophy. Instead, he offers deconstruction, which is in part a way of reading philosophic texts intended to make explicit the underlying metaphysical suppositions and assumptions through a close analysis of the language that attempts to convey them.   
   Deconstruction is not purely negative, but it is primarily concerned with something tantamount to a ‘critique’ of the Western philosophical tradition, although this is generally staged via an analysis of specific texts. To simplify matters, deconstruction seeks to expose, and then to subvert, the various binary oppositions that undergird our dominant ways of thinking.  

 
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Jacques Derrida
1930  -  2004
 

Algerian born French philosopher.

In 1930, Derrida was born into a Jewish family in Algiers. He was also born into an environment of some discrimination. In fact, he either withdrew from, or was forced out of at least two schools during his childhood simply on account of being Jewish.

Derrida taught principally at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris (1964–84). 

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Major Works of Derrida
“Speech and Phenomena” and Other Essays on Husserl’s Theory of Signs, trans. David B. Allison (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1973). 
Spurs: Nietzsche's Styles, trans. Barbara Harlow (Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1979). 
Margins of Philosophy, trans. Alan Bass (Chicago & London: Chicago University Press, 1982).
The Post Card: From Socrates to Freud and Beyond, trans. Alan Bass (Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1987). 
Of Spirit: Heidegger and the Question, trans. Geoffrey Bennington & Rachel Bowlby (Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1989).
Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, and the New International, trans. Peggy Kamuf (New York & London: Routledge, 1994). 
Resistances of Psychoanalysis, trans. Peggy Kamuf, Pascale-Anne Brault and Michael Naas (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998). 
Philosophy in a Time of Terror: Dialogues with Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida, with Jürgen Habermas (Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 2003). 
Speech and Phenomena (1967), 
Writing and Difference (1967)
Of Grammatology (1967)
Psyche: Invention of the Other (1987) 
Resistances of Psychoanalysis (1996).

 
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 Outline on  Michel Foucault  1926 - 1984
External
Links
Link
-  Biography & Major Works
 
  Foucault is considered the most important voice of post structuralism
 
  For Foucault, while structuralism was overwhelmingly influenced by linguistics, post structuralism shows a variety of theoretical inputs
 
  The variety of theoretical styles & methods makes Foucault's work provocative & difficult to handle  
  Foucault does not simply adopt ideas from other thinkers, he transforms them & integrates them into his unusual theoretical orientation  
  Weber's theory of rationalization has an impact, but to Foucault it is found only in certain "key sites" & it is not an "iron cage" because there is always resistance  
  See Also:  Weber  
  While Foucault embraces much of Marxism, as many social theorists have done, he applied Marx's ideas to other sectors of society besides the economy  
  Foucault focuses on a range of post structuralist institutions such as crime, punishment, sexuality, insanity, & others  
  Foucault is most interested in the micro politics of power than the traditional Marxian concern w/ power at the societal level  
  Foucault practices hermeneutics in order to better understand the social phenomenon that concern him  
  Hermeneutics is the understanding of human action in relation to some wider whole which gives it meaning  
  An example of hermeneutics can be seen the the understanding of a painting by reference to the outlook or world view of the society in which it is produced  
  When using hermeneutics, the analyst constructs such a world view out of its individual manifestations  
  The circular relationship between a whole & its parts is known as a hermeneutic circle  
  Foucault has no sense of any ultimate truth because there are ever more layers to be peeled away  
 
There is a phenomenological influence in Foucault  
  Phenomenology is a philosophical inquiry into intellectual processes, which is characterized by the vigorous exclusion of any preconceptions about existence or causes  
  Phenomenology is distinct from psych, the aim of which is causal explanations rather than pure description  
 
Husserl is perhaps the most important phenomenologist; he looked at the phenomena of consciousness, & bracketed them from any question of whether they are true or not  
  Reflecting on the formal science of geometry Husserl came to the conclusion that the objectivity of ideas arose from their assent amongst a community of subjects  
  Thus phenomenon arise in consciousness when they are held by a community of subjects / people  
  While is a phenomenological influence in Foucault, he rejects the idea of an autonomous, meaning giving subject  
  Foucault embraces elements of structuralism in his analyses of the structures of crime & punishment, sexuality, insanity, & others, but he believes there are no formal rule governed models of  behavior  
  Foucault embraces Nietzsche's interest in the relation btwn power & knowledge, but the link is analyzed more sociological by Foucault  
  Foucault is considered to be a post structuralist both because he embraces many theoretical inputs such as hermeneutics, phenomenology, & structuralism, but his work evolved well beyond this  
  In his early work, he did an archaeology of knowledge by examining bodies of knowledge, ideas, modes of discourse  
  THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF KNOWLEDGE  
  He contrasts his archaeology of knowledge to history  which he regards as being too rational & as seeing too much continuity in history  
  Foucault believes that social theorists have imposed rational explanations on the events in history when there are none, i.e. they have engaged in rationalization in the sense of finding a reason for an event after the fact  
  For Sheridan, Foucault is searching for "a set of rules of formation that determine the conditions of possibility of all that can be said w/in the particular discourse at any time"  
  The search for rules of formation is similar to the "deep structures" that the structuralists search for  
  Foucault is also similar to the structuralists in his study of discursive events, spoken & written statements, esp the early statements in the history of a field  
  Foucault wants to uncover the basic conditions that make discourse possible  
  The unity of a discourse, the way positions come to form a science or a discipline does not come from a subject or subjects, but rather from basic discursive rules & practices  
  Foucault was esp interested in the discursive practices that formed the base of scientific discourse, particularly the human sciences  
  After his archaeology of knowledge phase, Foucault embraces more of a post structuralist view by bringing other theoretical inputs to address the link btwn power & knowledge in his examination of the origins of scientific disciplines / structures  
  THE GENEALOGY OF POWER  
  After the archaeology of knowledge phase, Foucault moves to his genealogy of power phase  
  Like Nietzsche, Foucault is concerned w/ how people govern themselves & others through the production of  knowledge  
  Power if generated by power by constituting people as subjects, & then governing the subjects w/ the knowledge  
  Foucault is critical of the hierarchization of knowledge, i.e. the typical hierarchy w/ the physical sciences on top, social sciences in the middle, & the humanities at the bottom  
  Because the physical sciences have the most power, Foucault is critical of them  
  Foucault is interest in techniques, the technologies that are derived from knowledge & how they are used by institutions to exert power over people  
  While there is a link btwn power & knowledge, Foucault does not see a conspiracy because that would imply conscious actors, as opposed to seeing actors as linked by structural relationships  
  Foucault does not see progress from primitive brutishness to more modern humanism based on more sophisticated power system  
  Foucault sees history lurching from one system of domination, based on knowledge, to another  
  While there has been no progress, Foucault notes that the dominate power structure is always contested; there is always ongoing resistance to it  

 
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Michel Foucault
1926 - 1984

Foucault was born in Poitiers, France. His student years seem to have been psychologically tormented but were intellectually brilliant. He became academically established during the 1960s, when he held a series of positions at French universities, before his election in 1969 to the ultra prestigious College de France, where he was Professor of the History of Systems of Thought until his death. From the 1970s on, Foucault was very active politically. He was a founder of the Groupe d'information sur les prisons and often protested on behalf of homosexuals and other marginalized groups. He frequently lectured outside France, particularly in the United States, and in 1983 had agreed to teach annually at the University of California at Berkeley. An early victim of AIDS, Foucault died in Paris on June 25, 1984.

It can be difficult to think of Foucault as a philosopher. His academic formation was in psychology and its history as much as in philosophy, his books were mostly histories of medical and social sciences, his passions were literary and political. Nonetheless, almost all of Foucault's works can be fruitfully read as philosophical in either or both of two ways: as a carrying out of philosophy's traditional critical project in a new (historical) manner; and as a critical engagement with the thought of traditional philosophers. This article will present him as a philosopher in these two dimensions.

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Major Works of Foucault


 
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 Outline on   Madness & Civilization
 by Michel Foucault
External
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  In Madness & Civilization (1965) Foucault does an archaeology of knowledge, specifically of psychiatry
 
  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
 
  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
 
  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
 
  Using Weberian iron cage imagery, Foucault sees the mad in the iron cage constructed by those w/ reason
 
  Scientific psych of the 19th C arose out of the separation of the mad from the sane in the 18th C
 
  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
 
  For Foucault, psychiatry is a moral tactic overlaid w/ positivism that resulted in asylum life but it is more moral than scientific
 
  Psychiatry is used against the mad who are unable to protect themselves
 
  The mad are sentenced by so called science to a gigantic moral imprisonment
 
  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
 
  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
 
  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
 
  Madness in the classical age is not the mental or physical changes, it is the delirious language that is the ultimate truth of madness
 
  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  
 
In the 1700s & earlier medicine was a classificatory science only, & the focus was on the construction of a clearly ordered system of diseases
 
  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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An Introduction to Post Modernity
External
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  -  Project:  Post Modernism & Optimism
Link
  POST MODERNISM HOLDS THAT RATIONALIZATION ULTIMATELY HAS NEGATIVE EFFECTS ON SOCIETY & THAT RATIONALITY WHEN PURSUED TO ITS FULL DEVELOPMENT BECOMES IRRATIONAL   
 
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
 
  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   
 
Post modernism embraces a complete openness to perspectives in social inquiry, art, political empowerment, etc.
 
 
Many post modernists will not define their position in the affirmative because to do so, is too rational, limiting, oppressive
 
 
Post modernism's critique of modernity is that it is a flawed ideology or school of thought because rationality crushes the human spirit
 
 
Post modernity is a new historical epoch that has succeeded the modern era, modernity
 
 
Post modern social theory is a new way of thinking about post modernity
 
 
According to the P-Ms, the world is so different it requires a new way to think about it
 
 
Post modernists ask whether technology, rationality, science, etc. have been given too great a role in society today
 
 
Post modernists believe that technology, rationality, science, etc. as characterized in modern, industrial society are harmful to society in various ways
 
  P-M ADVOCATES MULTI PERSPECTIVISM WHEREIN ALL POINTS OF VIEW / KNOWLEDGE ARE TAKEN INTO ACCT   
  See Also:  Mannheim on multi perspectivalism   
 
P-M believes that no one kind of knowledge can tell us, or society, what we need to do
 
 
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
 
  For the P-M, no one paradigm can tell us "the truth"  
 
P-M believes that knowledge consists of more than what can be tested scientifically
 
 
Ways of knowing embraced by P-M include cultural knowledge, artistic knowledge, ethics & examine fields such as justice, happiness, beauty, etc.
 
  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.   
 
Postman argues that modern societies are technopolies which are societies in which technology defines religion, art, family, politics, history, truth, privacy, intelligence, etc.
 
 
For Postman, technopolies have robbed modern people of their souls & invalidated alternative ways of living & believing
 
 
P-M rejects the positivist notion that things have one meaning
 
 
For P-M, art, religion, even scientific findings have different meanings to different people
 
 
Like ethnomethodology, subjective, interpretive meaning is the only valid type of meaning
 
  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  
 
Post-modernism rejects many schools of thought such as:
- positivism
- functionalism
- Marxism
- conflict theory
- Weberianism
 
  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
 
  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? 
 
  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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 Outline on Post Modernity
External
Links
  -  Project:  Post Modernism
Link
  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
 
  b.  Post modernity is a world lacking in affect & emotion
 
  c.  There is a loss of a sense of one's place in history
 
  In the PM age, it is hard to distinguish past, present, & future
 
  d.  Instead of explosive, expanding, productive technologies, of modernity, Post Modernity is characterized by implosive, flattening, reproductive technologies such as television
 
  Ritzer defines post modernism in its opposition to FOUR characteristic ways of thinking
 
  a.  Post modernism opposes the grand narratives of classical sociology
 
  b.  Post modernism rejects the tendency to put boundaries btwn disciplines
 
  c.  Post modernism is interesting in shocking or startling the reader
 
  d.  Post modernism developed from TWO schools of thought
 
  For PMists today there is something fundamentally different about the transmission of meaning & modernism has fundamental flaws in its system of knowledge
 
  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
 
  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
 
  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
 
  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
 
  For Baudrillard, the simulacrum, therefore, stands on its own as a copy w/o a model
 
  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
 
 
Hanshaw & Kane have fallen into relative obscurity, while Betty Boop remains an icon of the flapper  
 
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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 Outline on an Introduction to  Theories of Consumption
External
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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
 
  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.
 
  Simmel looks at consumption in his examination of the tragedy of culture produced by the proliferation of human products
 
  Simmel also examined money and fashion  
  Thorstein Veblen, 1889, 1994, has a famous work on conspicuous consumption
 
  Post modernism defines post modern society as a consumer society w/ the result that consumption plays a central role in that theory
 
  Baudrillard, 1970/1998 wrote the Consumer Society
 
  Lipovetsky conducts a post postmodern work on the importance of fashion
 
  Urry, 1995, Consuming Places
 
  Ritzer, 1999, Enchanting a Disenchanted World
 
  Humphrey, 1998, Shelf Life
 

 
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 Outline on Post Post Modernism
External
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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
 
  Ferry & Renaut (1985, 1990) rescue humanism & subjectivity in the face of unbridled rationalism
 
  Lilla, 1994, defends human rights as a central focus for all social theory to address
 
  Manent, 1994, 1998, self consciously analyzes modernity & the human subject
 
  Lipovetsky, 1987, 1994, refutes the tendency of post modern social theorist to be hypercritical of the contemporary world by defending the importance of fashion
 
 
Fashion enhances rather than detracts from individuality
 
  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
 
  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  

The End
 
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